The Central Highlands of Vietnam is an important Robusta coffee growing region. However, the region is facing climate change impacts from rising temperatures and irregular rainfall, while Vietnamese coffee farmers predominantly rely on irrigation from heavily depleted aquifers. To continue productive and sustainable growth, this system requires an innovative approach to meet this hydrological challenge. Here we propose a user-friendly tool, which aims to support coffee farmers’ irrigation decisions, through the Targeted Irrigation Support Tool or ThIRST.

With the acknowledgment of climate change as a key development concern, the concept of climate resilience to combat its impacts has gained research and policy impetus. Further, there has been a growing emphasis on gender in climate resilience, given that women are documented as experiencing greater vulnerabilities and adaptation challenges.

The introduction of 'Kounouz,' a drought-tolerant barley variety, has significantly enhanced farm income and reduced production risks for small-scale farmers in Tunisia.

The gender gap in agriculture is a global pattern in which women in agriculture have limited access to land, productive resources, financial capital, information, technology and advisory services when compared to male farmers. Given that women comprise a significant portion of the agricultural workforce, it is crucial to ensure climate-smart agriculture (CSA) policies and interventions are gender responsive. Embracing a gender-responsive approach in CSA entails addressing the distinct gender needs, roles and lived realities of farmers.

Women inhabiting biosphere reserves experience heightened vulnerability, attributable to the intricate interplay between constrained resource accessibility and their dependence on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture and natural resource management. However, there exists a dearth of comprehensive research regarding the gender facets of climate change adaptation within biosphere reserves.

The benefits derived from the expansion of trees outside forests (TOF) can vary greatly for women, men and other socially diverse groups due to their distinct roles, responsibilities, and access to resources like land and trees. Therefore, it is essential to ensure the meaningful participation of both women and men from diverse social and economic backgrounds in these initiatives. Additionally, interventions should be tailored to address their specific needs and interests to achieve an equitable distribution of benefits.

Climate change poses a significant challenge to farmers worldwide. It affects men and women differently due to their diverse roles, responsibilities, resource access and sociocultural norms. Understanding the gender perspective would help policymakers to develop evidence-based strategies that address unique vulnerabilities, promoting equitable, inclusive adaptation and resilience policies to climate risk. Hence there is a need to evaluate the available evidence base on gendered perspectives in this domain to design effective adaptation policies as well as future research.

The increasing agricultural wages in rural India have lent significant R&D and policy support for laborsaving agricultural technologies. While some are heralded as ‘game changers’ in achieving food sufficiency goals, less research is devoted to understanding whether farmer adoption of these technologies worsens economic inequalities. We hypothesize that the rapid diffusion of laborsaving agricultural technologies could result in a reduction in employment and loss of a key source of livelihood for the nonfarming rural poor, especially women from socially marginalized groups.

The objective of this proposed scientific session aims to introduce the Equity Principles for Transformative Innovation (Equity Principles), which have been recently submitted to a Special Collection Supplement in Agricultural Systems. This session aims to help researchers understand the importance of inclusive Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) frameworks, and Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) tools, and how to incorporate them into their work on socially effective and responsible innovation and scaling.

This research examines the relationship between soil inequalities, gender disparities, and health outcomes in Guatemala. The historical context of land concentration, limited access to land, internal conflict, and socioeconomic factors contribute to soil inequalities, which in turn affect household gender dynamics and health outcomes. Using a case study approach in San Martin Jilotepeque, Guatemala, this research examines the challenges faced by male and female farmers in managing their soil.

Persistent gender and social inequities undermine agri-food systems’ potential to contribute to inclusive and sustainable development. Systems thinking recognizes the interconnectedness and complexity of agri-food systems, emphasizing the need to consider various interrelated components and their dynamic interactions and highlights the need for integrated and transformative strategies that target multiple levels of the agri-food systems, from local to global.