Knowledge management and sharing is essential for agricultural development, fostering the exchange of valuable information and innovative practices among researchers, farmers, and extension officers. Recognising this, regional initiatives such as Ukama Ustawi (UU) play a critical role in ensuring that research findings are not confined to academic journals but are made accessible to those who need them the most.

This presentation will present the importance of plant pests and diseases and their impact on food security, with examples of exotic invasive plant pests and diseases that cross borders, as well as the strategic role of international Gene Banks in plant genetic resources exchange. The presentation will also emphasize how the international germplasm health units function, what they are, and the measures and procedures followed to achieve safe movement of genetic resources.

The Index-based flood insurance (IBFI) is one of the outputs of the research under the initiative on Diversification in East and South Africa (UU), Work Package two (WP2): Bundling climate insurance solutions focusing on a case study in districts in Southern part of Zambia. This research was developed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) co-designed with an insurance institution and insurance product developers and co-implemented with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) of Zambia.

The frequency and severity of extreme weather events are presenting substantial challenges to communities and nations worldwide. The already escalating impact of climatic hazards is expected to persist due to ongoing climate change. While strides have been made in enhancing forecasting capabilities and establishing early warning systems, global coverage remains inadequate, with just 40% of African countries reporting a multi-hazard early warning system in place as of 2022.

As part of the AICCRA, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are tasked to develop curricula and training materials to accelerate the mainstreaming of Climate Information Services (CIS) and Climate- Smart Agriculture (CSA) into University’s curricula in Africa. This report describes the activities of a training of trainers’ (ToT) workshop on Climate Smart Nutrient and Water Management in Crop Production course module .

Long term experiments (LTEs) are critical in relation to the slow variables of the agronomic
gain key performance indicators (KPIs) related to sustainability, including aspects of
productivity and environment. The CGIAR Centers involvedin Excellence in Agronomy
Initiative (EiA) are managing 32 LETs, ranging from 7 to 61 years old. These experiments that
are on maize, rice, and wheat based cropping systems, are located in East and Southern
Africa (15), Latin America (6) South Asia (4), and few in Central and West Asia and North

In many countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, input subsidy programmes are common, often focussing on inorganic fertiliser. These programmes often do not achieve their food security objectives, partly because soil health is in decline as a result of years of application of inorganic fertilisers in the absence of other soil ameliorative measures.

Food system transformation is intrinsically tied to effective land and water resource management, especially in the regions facing competition among various land uses. The AhafoAno Southwest District in Ghana exemplifies this complexity, with agriculture, mining, and agroforestry practices competing against one another for arable land, impacting the local food system and contributing to water resource degradation.

Climate mitigation technologies and practices have the potential to enhance gender equality and women’s resilience to climate change, if underlying gender norms, intersectional social differences, and sociocultural dynamics are addressed in agrifood systems. This is the key takeaway from a 2023 IRRI scoping review of literature and learnings on gender and climate mitigation across six sectors— agro-ecology, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, improved livestock management, renewable energy, and water conservation.

Rice-based production systems in the Philippines play a crucial role in food security and are highly vulnerable to climate-related risks such as flooding, drought and high temperatures. CGIAR’s Research Initiative on Climate Resilience (ClimBeR) has been conducting activities to increase the resilience of smallholder production systems in the Philippines to withstand the effects of climate change. One of these is the Climate-Smart Mapping and Adaptation Planning (CS-MAP, [1]).

Agriculture and livestock represent the main incomegenerating activity for women and youth in the rural areas of Mali. It is expected that climate change will lead to a reduction in food production due to changes in rainfall patterns and temperature in Africa (Awojobi and Tetteh, 2017), and Mali is facing the same challenges. To cope with such climateinduced stress, women and youth need information and access to climate-smart technologies.

As climate change intensifies, its negative impacts on agriculture and food systems are also accelerating, particularly affecting the smallholder vulnerable farmers, the majority of whom are women in developing countries. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is designed to contribute to productivity enhancement, and support adaptation and mitigation to build resilience of farmers. However, the evidence on the factors influencing adoption of CSA by women farmers, and the consequent impacts, is scarce.