Voluntary certification programs are one type of intervention used to incentivize the commodity agricultural sector in tropical forest landscapes to reduce deforestation and improve sustainability. These programs encourage supply-chain actors to produce and source products according to agreed standards. We review the cases of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) voluntary certification program in Indonesia, and the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) voluntary certification program for cattle in Brazil.

Considering that agriculture remains a key sector in Ethiopia, commercialization of the sector necessitates improving participation of smallholder farmers in markets, hence improving their incomes and livelihoods. Promoting smallholder commercialization through cash crop production is one avenue of such efforts. The main argument for smallholder commercialization through cash crop production is that it can allow households to increase their income directly. Sesame in Ethiopia can be taken as a good example in this regard.

Grasslands are one of the world's most widespread vegetation types, covering nearly 20% of the land surface and represent a major source of production of agricultural products. However, grassland vegetation across the Mediterranean region is changing at an unanticipated rate. These changes are the result of climatic and socio-economic changes.

This paper describes an action research process undertaken with four African agricultural carbon projects—CARE’s Sustainable Agriculture in Changing Climate Initiative in Western Kenya; World Vision’s Assisted Natural Regeneration Project in Humbo, Ethiopia; Vi Agroforestry’s Western Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project; and ECOTRUST’s Trees for Global Benefits in Uganda—to explore their institutional changes as project managers and communities work to build local capacity for project management.

The current project has sought to assess i) the potential of agricultural biodiversity-focused PES to serve as a cost-effective and socially equitable domesticated diversity conservation incentive scheme, as well as ii) how economic incentive mechanisms such as PES can be designed to build on and complement local institutions of collective action. Results are presented from pilot Payment for Agrobiodiversity Conservation (PACS) schemes and framed field experiments implemented in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes aimed at sustaining diversity within quinoa, a traditional Andean grain.

Climate change impacts food production systems, particularly in locations with large, vulnerable populations. Elevated greenhouse gases (GHG), as well as land cover/land use change (LCLUC), can influence regional climate dynamics. Biophysical factors such as topography, soil type, and seasonal rainfall can strongly affect crop yields. We used a regional climate model derived from the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) to compare the effects of projected future GHG and future LCLUC on spatial variability of crop yields in East Africa.

Small landholders can implement a range of climatesmart agricultural (CSA) practices and technologies, in order to minimize the adverse effects of climate change and variability, but their adoption largely depends on economic benefits associated with the practices. To demonstrate the potential economic benefits of CSA practices, we conducted a study with smallholder farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India.