This report provides an overview of the types and sources of planting material used by 1315 farmers in Uganda and Tanzania. The data was collected from six dristricts; Luwero and Mbarara in Uganda and Meru, Moshi, Bukoba and Rungwe in Tanzania. Nearly all farmers who participated in the study used suckers which they obtained them from their own farms or from friends and neighbours. Suckers are more readily available, exchanged for free or affordable and accessible to farmers.

The CompensACTION Initiative aims to promote payments for ecosystem services (PES) to improve smallholder farmers’ incomes at large scales while incentivizing climate action, sustainable farming and other environmental outcomes.
Key drivers for scaling up PES programs are increasing farmers’ benefits in PES schemes, using public finance to leverage private sector capital, and facilitating PES project readiness.
Priority areas for action to meet the CompensACTION Initiative objectives are to:

Background: Agri-innovations are mostly delivered to farmers through private and public sector-led institutions around the world, with various degrees of success in Malawi. These distribution systems, on the other hand, do not meet everyone’s production and productivity needs, particularly those of smallholder farmers. Alternative gap-flling systems are therefore required. Over the course of 7 years, we performed two studies in Malawi to assess the efciency of integrated farmer led agri-innovation delivery mechanisms, in order to advise programming and delivery improvements.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) makes financial sense for businesses. Governments are increasingly holding the private sector responsible for their role in climate change impacts. Extreme weather events are incredibly costly for businesses. This is particularly true in agriculture, which relies heavily on favorable weather conditions. CSA practices and technologies are central to the transformative changes necessary to maintain the stability—and profitability—of the food system in the face of climate change.

This note proposes a roadmap to advise public and private investors, banks, corporates, and NGOs, on how to mainstream gender smart investing to scale climate-smart agriculture (CSA).

This study was conducted in Lake Hawassa catchment, Ethiopia where policy programs are aiming to restore degraded lands with participation of local stakeholders. We assessed the system in relation to natural resource management and degradation using the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) conceptual framework and conducted a stakeholder analysis to understand stakeholder interest, influence and interactions amongst the different categories of stakeholders. Data were collected using key informant interviews, field observation and a literature review.

Small-scale irrigation (SSI) provides great benefits to farmers in terms of increased yields and profits, better food and nutrition security and greater resilience to climate shocks. Ethiopia has high potential for expanding SSI and has invested considerably in this area in recent years. Despite these investments, several challenges to further expansion of irrigation technologies remain. Different stakeholders in the country play important roles in overcoming these barriers to further scale technologies for SSI.

Achieving gender equality in irrigation can result in greater production, income, and job opportunities for both men and women smallholder farmers from diverse social groups, while building climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa. In Ethiopia, national irrigation agencies, donors, and researchers have been assisting project implementers to mainstream gender issues into the planning and implementation of irrigation programs.

The index-based livestock insurance (IBLI), since the time it was launched in 2010 in the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya and Ethiopia, has evolved into drought risk financing solutions (DRFS). This evolution is characterized by development from a micro product implemented, as potential social protection tools, to a regional level de-risking instrument for pastoralists in the Horn of Africa. There have also been demands for DRFS to rise to several other challenges such as conflict, access to health and market services (feed, fodder) that are being faced in the drylands of Africa.

Involvement of youth in horticulture agribusiness has become a vital approach to create employment opportunities among the youth in Tanzania. This study aimed at examining the extent of youth participation and factors influencing youth involvement in horticulture agribusiness with a focus on innovations in post-harvest management (PHM). Data were collected from a sample of 576 male and female youth in Njombe region using a multi-stage random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using an ordered logit model and descriptive statistics.

In October 2023, IWMI organized a workshop with the National Agency of Civil Aviation and Meteorology (ANACIM) and the support of Alliance Bioversity-CIAT on behalf of the CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience, ClimBeR, to launch the AWARE Platform in Senegal. This platform aims to provide early warning, early action, and finance and introduce a dialogue on sensitizing anticipatory action to mitigate climate risks. The workshop brought together 53 key stakeholders, including government officials, local and international NGO representatives, academic staff, and private sector experts.