This concept note is developed by the CGIAR Initiative for Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Ustawi). It highlights the significance of strengthening capacity in the science and practice of scaling innovation. The lack of a comprehensive and realistic understanding of innovation and scaling processes, coupled with limited scaling knowledge and capacity across individual, organizational and system levels hinder the effective scaling of innovations. Consequently, many promising initiatives fail to reach their full potential and address systemic issues at scale.

The UNDP & Life Peace Institute (LPI) report on mapping climate security adaptations highlights that the link between climate and conflict depends on the interplay of exposure to climate hazards, vulnerability, and coping capacity of states and communities. Therefore, due increasing impacts of Climate Change (CC), it is crucial for the Kenyan governments to identify and mitigate climate security1 risks both at national and county levels. The National Climate Action Plan (NCCAP) outlines the Kenyan government’s strategy on mitigation and adaptation to climate change and its effects.

Fish production has remained low in Africa and the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. Efforts have been ramped up to grow the fish industry. Aquaculture production in SSA has increased by an average of 11% annually since 2000. This is twice as fast compared with the rest of the world’s trends. Despite the momentum seen in the last decade and all the financial and technical support, SSA continues to account for less than 1% of global aquaculture production.

Grass pea is a promising crop with the potential to provide food and fodder, but its genomics has not been adequately explored. Identifying genes for desirable traits, such as drought tolerance and disease resistance, is critical for improving the plant. Grass pea currently lacks known R-genes, including the nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich repeat (NBS-LRR) gene family, which plays a key role in protecting the plant from biotic and abiotic stresses. In our study, we used the recently published grass pea genome and available transcriptomic data to identify 274 NBS-LRR genes.

This study determined the effect of pelagic Sargassum on in vitro dry matter and organic matter degradation, total gas production (TGP), and protozoa population. The treatments were different levels of Sargassum inclusion on a basal substrate (Stargrass hay; Cynodon nlemfuensis) as follows: T0 (control treatment based on Stargrass hay), T10 (90% Stargrass hay + 10% Sargassum), T20 (80% Stargrass hay + 20% Sargassum), and T30 (70% Stargrass hay + 30% Sargassum). Ruminal fermentation kinetics and protozoa population were determined during 72 h of in vitro incubations.

Understanding the genetic and molecular function of nitrate sensing and acquisition across crop species will accelerate breeding of cultivars with improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE).
Here, we performed a genome-wide scan using wheat and barley accessions characterized under low and high N inputs that uncovered the NPF2.12 gene, encoding a homolog of the Arabidopsis nitrate transceptor NRT1.6 and other low-affinity nitrate transporters that belong to the MAJOR FACILITATOR SUPERFAMILY.

Are the forest conservation practices sustained after Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programmes end? Using a sample of 268 (former) PES recipients and non-recipients from the Budongo-Bugoma PES programme in Western Uganda, we employ the before-after-control–intervention (difference-in-difference) approach to estimate the PES programme outcome on their privately owned forests. PES is associated with less deforestation during the operational period, but the link has vanished four years after programme termination.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a predominant food security crop in several developing countries. Its storage roots, rich in carbohydrate, are deficient in essential micronutrients, including provitamin A carotenoids.
Increasing carotenoid content in cassava storage roots is important to reduce the incidence of vitamin A deficiency, a public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. However, cassava improvement advances slowly, mainly due to limited information on the molecular factors influencing β-carotene accumulation in cassava.

Seeds of cereals (wheat, barley) and legumes (faba bean, lentil, chickpea, grasspea) are important exchange materials for farming, crop production, and research at national, regional, and international levels, but with the exchanges comes the danger of introducing new pests (fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes, and insects). ICARDA’s Germplasm Health Unit (GHU) is responsible for the monitoring, clearance, and documentation of safe germplasm movement at the Center.

The Central American Dry Corridor (CADC) is among the most climate-vulnerable regions worldwide. Climate change, commonly referred to as a “threat multiplier” of pre-existing socioeconomic issues, already undermines rural livelihoods by reducing agricultural yields and income opportunities. This paper provides a review of climate-related migration in the CADC region while identifying the specific pathways by which climate change manifests itself as a threat multiplier to migration.

The present study was carried out at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Samastipur, Bihar during 2021-2023 to focus on examining alterations in SOC pools resulting from conservation agriculture (CA) practices in R-W system in the eastern IGP, following the collection of soil samples from a long-term trial that was initiated in rainy (kharif) season 2006.

Pastoralists are generally known for carefully selecting and maintaining their livestock. In this study, we examine the preferences of pastoralists for goat traits. We employ discrete choice experiments of all levels and endpoints to investigate the relative weights that pastoralists in southern Ethiopia attach to the different traits of does and bucks. Based on data generated from 600 pastoral households, we estimated willingness to pay, trait preference heterogeneity, and attribute nonattendance using different specifications of the mixed logit model.