Climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions of small-scale farmers in East Africa. How farmers perceive climate change and its impacts has a strong bearing on how they adapt to the adverse impacts. This paper focused on factors that determine climate change adaptation and perceptions among small-scale farmers of Embu County. A survey was carried out across five sub-counties of Embu County where a multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 411 households. A questionnaire was administered to each household. A total of five FGDs were generated by the use of quota sampling.

Land degradation affects a significant portion of the Earth’s ice-free land area and several countries have embraced the challenge of restoring large parts of their degraded lands. Success in these efforts depends on various factors, including the amount of resources invested, the technical capacity available and the degree of involvement of stakeholders. Burkina Faso has committed to restoring 5 Mha of degraded land by 2030.

This study sought to understand the extent of digital technology usage across Zambezi riparian countries and analyze whether there is a conducive enabling environment for digital technology upscaling for climate adaptation. The study thus, examined the relationship between having a better enabling environment and the use of digital technologies in agriculture.

The study on satisfaction of experts and farmers with the advisory service on Site-Specific Fertilizer Recommendations (SSFRs) and climate information services (CIS) was conducted to assess the level of satisfaction of these partners with the various training, SSFRs advice, and climate forecast information services. Primary data were collected from 27 experts and 202 farm households from 10 districts in the Amhara, Oromia, and SNNP regions. All of the experts and 95.5% of the farmers received training on SSFR.

This chapter presents a definition of 'scaling' and outlines the key elements for success based on the experiences gained from Africa RISING research and dissemination in East and Southern Africa (ESA). Three examples are presented: (a) research and development partnerships; (b) community based scaling through seed systems; and (c) outdoor advertising for orange-fleshed sweet potato. It presents experiences and lessons learned from using these approaches to transfer and scale the technologies.

This study examines the extent of the productivity gap between male and female bean producers, its discriminatory nature and implications for the policymakers in agriculture in Tanzania. Generally, women are distinctively “invisible” in agriculture, due to social norms and even from the national agricultural policy perspective. Their discrimination arises from uncounted and unaccounted for farm work, and their productivity is reduced by triple roles, limited access to education, having triple effects on access to technology, training and land rights.

There is a large and growing literature on the potential use of policy instruments for stimulating the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices amongst smallholders. The objective of this article is to review and understand how the array of potential policy incentives can serve as mechanisms for enhancing adoption and upscaling of potential CSA practices by small-scale farmers in low-income countries. The review follows a matrix approach capturing where specific CSA practices (rows) are supported by typical policy instruments (columns) for enhancing widespread adoption.

Forest and landscape restoration measures could address landscape degradation, increase ecosystem services, and improve livelihoods. However, mapping potential areas for forest and landscape restoration measures and identifying enabling and constraining factors is crucial for effective implementation.

Micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs) remain widespread among people in sub-Saharan Africa1,2,3,4,5, where access to sufficient food from plant and animal sources that is rich in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) is limited due to socioeconomic and geographical reasons4,5,6. Here we report the micronutrient composition (calcium, iron, selenium and zinc) of staple cereal grains for most of the cereal production areas in Ethiopia and Malawi. We show that there is geospatial variation in the composition of micronutrients that is nutritionally important at subnational scales.

The Government of India has committed to a national target to increase fish production to 22 million metric

Ghana is one of the world’s leading cocoa producers. Between 1994 and 2018, the area under cocoa production has nearly ripled. This has increased income, but it has also imposed costs. As rainforests have been converted into land for cocoa farming, habitat for species has decreased and become increasingly fragmented in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Rainforest loss also has huge implications for the ability of land to capture carbon and mitigate climate change globally. Expansion of cocoa farming is expected to aggravate these issues further.

Agricultural mechanization in developing countries has taken at least two contested innovation pathways—the “incumbent trajectory” that promotes industrial agriculture, and an “alternative pathway” that supports small-scale mechanization for sustainable development of hillside farming systems.