Using radio for extension service has the potential to reach many rural women with the needed climate information services (CIS) and climate smart agriculture (CSA) innovations. However, radio extension is not necessarily gender neutral. In this Info Note we present insights from designing and implementing a gender-smart radio extensions programme in Ghana.

Iron and zinc malnutrition is a global humanitarian concern that mostly affects newborns, children, and women in low- and middle-income countries where plant-based diets are regularly consumed. This kind of malnutrition has the potential to result in a number of immediate and long-term implications, including stunted growth, an elevated risk of infectious diseases, and poor development, all of which may ultimately cause children to not develop to the fullest extent possible.

Climate change has major implications for food security and the livelihood of smallholder farmers, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This is so in spite of the technical and technological innovations in agri-food systems over the past few decades which not only aimed to boost productivity but also be more climate smart. Evidence also suggests that the impact of climate change is not gender neutral (UN Women 2022).

The impacts of climate change in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), are already well known to farmers. Climate change affects women more negatively compared to men in five impact areas: (i) agricultural production; (ii) food and nutrition security; (iii) health; (iv) water and energy; (v) climate-related disaster, migration, and conflict. Over 2 million people in Kenya face the threat of food insecurity due to climate change. Maize production is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

This study used gender-intentional participatory approaches to address the challenges of low genetic correlation and lower genetic gains for small-scale bean producers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) originated in Central America or north-western South America from where it was introduced to Europe, Africa, Asia and North America in more recent times. Sweetpotato is now cultivated in nearly all parts of the tropics and sub-tropics as well as in the warmer parts of the temperate regions (CIP, 2019). This is because Sweetpotato is a dry-land crop, tolerant to a wide range of edaphic and climatic conditions. It is more tolerant of cold than other tropical root and tuber crops, hence, it can be grown at altitudes as high as 2500 m.

The CGIAR Gender Equality Initiative organized a stakeholder workshop on 23 – 24 May 2023. The workshop focused on exploring the technology and innovation bundles that have the potential to revolutionize farming practices and enhance the resilience of women farmers.

This Report was produced as part of the CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) Initiative’s effort to ensure that women and youth are well integrated into to the work of the Initiative’s Use Cases and that the EiA Initiative is achieving its gender- and youth-specific impacts: that women and men, youth and non-youth equally participate in and benefit from the agronomic solutions developed, validated, and piloted by Use Cases, and that social innovations that empower women and transform unequal power relations and restrictive social and gender norms are piloted and promoted.

This blog post is about how the female farmers of Malawi are coping with the after effects of the cyclone Freddy. The blog is based on information gathered during the first virtual field tour that took place on 4 April 2023.

Restoration of degraded land is key to enhancing land productivity and farmers' wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa. Evidence shows that the benefits of land restoration are tremendous, ranging from biophysical benefits in soil health, agricultural productivity, ecosystem services, to socio-economic dimensions such as improving farmers’ income and livelihoods. Yet one issue that is rarely considered is how the outcomes of restoration initiatives affect different social groups, specifically women, men, and the marginalized.