Fruits & vegetable value chains (F&V VC) in Nigeria hold significant potential to continue toward sustainable, inclusive food system transformation. Domestic food system growth, including that of F&V, remains crucial in achieving a healthy food environment and serving as a source of various micronutrients. There is a need for bundles of innovations to address multiple challenges along F&V VC in Nigeria, characterized by a set of challenges that are unique to developing countries and F&V.

The study was conducted by the Harnessing Gender and Social Equality for Resilience in Agrifood Systems (HER+) initiative in collaboration with UU in the context of the UU learning sites and HER+ learning labs.

Worldwide, cell phones are used by 5.4 billion people. They are becoming increasingly prevalent in the rural areas of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), providing smallholder farmers with access to agricultural markets. If they reduce information asymmetries between women and men farmers, they can also contribute to closing the gender gap in agricultural productivity. So far, however, digital innovations have had limited success in transforming agricultural systems. This may be due, in part, to the gender gap in cell-phone use.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), one of the research centers within the global Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), has a long history of gender research relevant to its mission of reducing poverty and ending hunger and malnutrition. Over the last two decades, gender has been effectively incorporated into all of IFPRI’s strategic research areas and into all phases of research. There is abundant evidence of IFPRI’s role as a leading global think tank on gender issues.

This report seeks to understand the value of genetic improvement for different traits for Tilapia in Nigeria (in economic and non-market preference terms), with the ultimate goal of developing a breeding objective based on underlying economic models (and/ or non-market preferences). This would provide valuable information for the advancement of selection candidates with performance tailored to meet the needs of different groups of Tilapia farmers in Nigeria, including men and women farmers, and broader supply chain participants.

AICCRA Ghana and Farm Radio International (FRI) selected Eight (8) radio stations to deliver the interactive radio program. A 3-day design workshop was organized in Kintampo from May 31 to June 02, 2023, and brought together key stakeholders, including farmers, AICCRA-trained extension officers, representatives from the Ghana Meteorological Agency and participants from all 8 selected radio stations. Subsequently, the eight (8) radio stations have cumulatively aired 144 episodes.

Over the past 60 years, food systems in South Asia have undergone rapid economic and socio-cultural transformations, with both considerable similarities and differences within and between nations (Pingali and Abraham, 2022). Early agrifood systems transformations were led by an intensification paradigm that has increased crop productivity by heavily relying on intensive input and resource use, particularly chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and groundwater.

This report presents the results of the quantitative survey on women and youth empowerment in the agricultural sector in Côte d'Ivoire. The survey targeted producer households from a digital database established as part of the TAFS-WCA baseline study. Data were collected in five Ivorian regions from a total sample of 410 actors. The analyses focused on perceptions of decision-making authority over resources, production activities, revenues, and leadership. Particular attention is paid to the disparities between women and men and between age groups. The key results are as follows:

Crop varietal and breeding lines selection is predominantly performed in controlled research stations, which may not properly represent African farmers’ crop growing environmental conditions. To address this, the project seeks to test the bean breeding lines in real farmers’ bean farming environments by implementing genomics-assisted on-farm testing using the tricot approach across a wide range of bean-growing environments.

Son La province has recently put in place policies and programs to support expansion of livestock production, however the province still faces low livestock productivity due to low quality and availability of forages and feedstuff. One of the provincial government’s priorities is to increase productivity of cattle and pigs through improved animal nutrition practices such as increased cultivation of improved forages and better feed management and utilization.

Rice is not just a staple food; it's a way of life for millions around the world. Rice cultivation has deep roots in many cultures, and women have historically played essential roles in every stage of its production. For example, women are often responsible for tasks such as planting, weeding, harvesting, and processing. However, their contributions in rice parboiling, a process which involves soaking, steaming, and drying rice grains before milling, are particularly significant.

Baseline survey findings from a randomized control trial that examines the effects of a sustainable land management training delivered to couples or women only in the context of rural Ethiopia where all participants are beneficiaries of a targeted social safety net program. The baseline survey was conducted in June 2023 and results were presented to implementation partners in October 2023.