Social cohesion plays a key role in processes of peacebuilding and sustainable development. Fostering social cohesion might present a potential to enhance the connection of natural resource management and peacebuilding and better functioning of sustainable land use systems. This contribution explores the nexus between social cohesion, natural resource management, and peacebuilding. Research is based on experience from cocoa production in two post-conflict countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Colombia.

This article highlights evidence and lessons learned from the InnovAfrica project conducted by the Agricultural Research Council in collaboration with other international organizations between 2017 and 2021. This project aimed to test and upscale best-bet Sustainable Agricultural Intensification (SAI) practices through Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) and improved dissemination strategies across six African countries (viz. Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania). The goal of the project was to improve the food and nutritional security of smallholder farmers in Africa.

‘‘End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote agriculture” is one of the stated goals of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. A major obstacle to achieving this goal is the growing incidence of armed conflict, terrorism and state fragility in the developing world. This obstacle deserves to be understood in particular its relation with food insecurity. In this perspective, availability of data in conflict regions has allowed the economic literature to provide a better understanding of the relationship between conflict and food security.

Site‐specific soil fertility management requires a fundamental understanding of factors that modulate soil fertility variability in the local context. To verify this assumption, this study hypothesized that soil fertility variability across two regions in Central and Western Ethiopia is determined by inter‐related effects of agro‐ecological zones and farmers’ resource endowment (‘wealthy’ versus ‘poor’ farmers).

Cocoa and oil palm are the major commodity crops produced in Ghana and livelihood options for hundreds of thousands of rural households. However, their production has negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Certification standards have been promoted as a market-led mechanism to ensure their sustainable production. Even though food security does not feature in the theory of change of most certification standards, there are interesting intersections. This paper assesses the food security outcomes of certification adoption among cocoa and oil palm smallholders in Ghana.

Wheat yields in Ethiopia need to increase considerably to reduce import dependency and keep up with the expected increase in population and dietary changes. Despite the yield progress observed in recent years, wheat yield gaps remain large. Here, we decompose wheat yield gaps in Ethiopia into efficiency, resource, and technology yield gaps and relate those yield gaps to broader farm(ing) systems aspects.

Agarwood resin, produced by certain evergreen tree species native to Southeast Asia, is used for making incenses, medicines and fragrances. A precious commodity for centuries, it has a current market value of USD 32 billion, projected to reach USD 64 billion by 2029 (Ash and Nguyen 2020). However, high trading frequency has led to agarwood species being threatened with extinction in the wild. In response, the Government of Indonesia is promoting agarwood plantations to decrease overexploitation on wild agarwood trees.