Agricultural landscapes must provide food, fiber and energy to

a growing population in a changing climate, while potentially

serving as instruments for climate change mitigation. Agriculture

is the backbone of the Kenyan economy, contributing approximately

25% of the GDP annually and employing more than 75%

of the population (The Government of Kenya 2010). The development

of agriculture is also important for poverty reduction since

most of the vulnerable groups, like pastoralists, the landless, and

In Nepal, more than 90% of cereal seed flows from informal systems and there are regions and groups of farmers that are not connected at all to any seed networks with external seed supply. Nepal's agricultural policies and formal institutions are promoting the development of the formal seed system. However, knowledge gaps exist on the opportunities and challenges for smallholder farmers when formal seed systems are becoming accessible.

Background

Excessive rainwater during the rainy season and lack of water in the dry season have been challenging the agricultural productivity and food security for rural communities in southern Mali. Various soil and water conservation practices were implemented in the past to improve crop yields and income, and reverse the effect of land degradation. However, none of these efforts looked into the potential use of shallow wells at a spatial scale to improve the agricultural productivity and hence the food security in the region.

Results

This policy briefs presents smallholder farmers' preferences and major challenges when accessing seed in Uganda. It reflects on the weaknesses of the formal and informal seed production and distribution systems and presents some practical recommendations for putting in place alternative and integrative seed quality control systems that can help fill in the gaps that the formal and informal systems cannot address separately.

Adapting to climate risks is central to the goal of increasing food security and enhancing resilience of farming systems in East Africa. We examined farmers’ attitudes and assessed determinants of adaptation using data from a random sample of 500 households in Borana, Ethiopia, Nyando, Kenya, Hoima Uganda, and Lushoto, Tanzania. Adaptation was measured using a livelihood-based index that assigned weights to different individual strategies based on their marginal contributions to a household’s livelihood.

Socio-economic and agrodevelopment trends and drivers for Asia

This report summarizes the results of a baseline household-­?level survey, led by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), carried out in 7 villages and 140 households in Lushoto, Tanzania in January 2011. The objective of this baseline effort was to describe the characteristics of the farming systems found across a wide range of research sites in 12 countries, including the Lushoto site, and to better understand what kinds of farming practice changes households have been making and why.

Climate change is a hazard to the food security of a growing world population since it affects agriculture and likewise, agriculture and natural resource management affect the climate system. The relationships between all these factors including polices, political conditions, economical management and pest and diseases, and how they interact are not currently well-understood, nor are the advantages and disadvantages of different responses to climate change.

This report addresses the economic, environmental and social dimensions of agricultural development, with the objective of ensuring food and nutrition security, in terms of availability, access, utilization and stability. It focuses on the livestock component of agricultural systems, given the role of livestock as an engine for the development of the agriculture and food sector, and as a driver of major economic, social and environmental changes in food systems worldwide.

There is an ongoing debate on what constitutes sustainable intensification of agriculture (SIA). In this paper, we propose that a paradigm for sustainable intensification can be defined and translated into an operational framework for agricultural development. We argue that this paradigm must now be defined—at all scales—in the context of rapidly rising global environmental changes in the Anthropocene, while focusing on eradicating poverty and hunger and contributing to human wellbeing.

Humanity is facing an enormous challenge in managing water to secure adequate food production. By the middle of this century, the world?s population is projected to reach 9.1 billion, 34 percent higher than today. Nearly all of this increase will occur in developing countries. In order to respond to the expected demand of this larger, more urban and, on average, richer population, food production must increase by about 70% as estimated by the FAO.