Yam (Dioscorea sp.) is an understudied tuber crop despite its importance for food security, income generation, culture, and health in West Africa. Traditional yam cropping practices in West Africa deliver low yields and lead to environmental degradation. In the context of a ‘research for development’ project, we developed and implemented a participatory and transdisciplinary research approach as a means to derive more sustainable yam production practices.

Acid soils are a major constraint to agricultural productivity in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia. Restoring soil pH to optimal ranges for agriculture can have a significant impact on yields, particularly for acid intolerant crops like wheat and barley. The application of agricultural lime is the standard corrective, although the large application requirements, lack of farmer awareness, and weak or non-existent lime supply chains make this a complex problem to address at scale. To date, no large-scale farmer trials of lime application have been undertaken in Ethiopia.

Multistakeholder platforms (MSPs) that bring together a range of actors to collaboratively address land and natural resource governance issues are increasingly common in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the extent to which such platforms effectively harmonise complex social-ecological challenges and deliver improved outcomes is poorly understood. This study examines how MSPs across different scales of governance in Zambia have influenced and facilitated more integrated landscape governance.

The goal of this study is to assess the potential of game-based experiential learning in raising awareness and stimulating discussions about groundwater resource systems, the social dilemma in groundwater management, and the need for institutional arrangements (rules) governing this shared resource, as well as whether such awareness and community discussions lead to actual change in groundwater governance in Ethiopia. Groundwater management is highly complex, with many users sharing the same resource often without realizing their interconnectedness.

Zambia has historically qualified as a regional model of stability and peace. However, this status is being undermined by several socio-political factors, including deeply entrenched patterns of social inequality and gender discrimination, high levels of poverty and youth unemployment, as well as recurring episodes of electoral violence. Climate and extreme weather events compound most of these vulnerabilities and even create new ones, generating societal dynamics that will likely increase social tensions with greater risk of insecurity.

Livestock production in Ethiopia is predominated by extensive production systems where animals graze in communal grazing lands that exposes to disease transmission and indiscriminate breeding. Intensive stall feeding occurs, mostly in peri-urban settings, with cows mainly fed on straw and limited fresh forages. Animal movement within the country for herd replacement poses disease risk due to lack of movement control.

The overall objective of the study is to outline and unpack climate change processes and identify important actors and institutions at national, regional, and global levels and their specific roles in curbing climate change. This study is aimed to establish how farmers’ organizations can engage, collaborate, build partnerships, cooperate, and act with synergy in promoting awareness and recognition of farmers issues.

This document will be a reference point in engaging stakeholders to influence policy through the iFEED process. The stakeholders identified will be grouped into working groups based on ratings on areas of interest and positions to integrate iFEED results to influence policies at various levels. Work Package 3 will work closely with stakeholders to organise stakeholder engagements for iFEED by convening and coordinating the activities of working groups.

Community Forest Management in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR; Petén, Guatemala) has been recognized internationally for yielding forest conservation and socioeconomic benefits. However, the effect of current timber harvesting practices on the genetic diversity of timber species populations has not previously been documented. This study assessed the effects of timber harvesting on the genetic diversity and viability of regeneration of the most commercially important timber species in the MBR: big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King).

Peru is the eighth largest producer of cacao beans globally, but high cadmium contents are constraining access to international markets which have set upper thresholds for permitted concentrations in chocolate and derivatives. Preliminary data have suggested that high cadmium concentrations in cacao beans are restricted to specific regions in the country, but to date no reliable maps exist of expected cadmium concentrations in soils and cacao beans.

Improving fertilizer use efficiency has remained a challenge, particularly for small-scale farming in undulating ‘abnormal’ landscapes of East Africa. Milne's 1930s concept on ‘Catena’ was considered as a breakthrough in understanding soil variability and its implication on productivity in East African highlands. However, there is limited information on how the ‘Catena’ features could be used for fine tuning fertilizer recommendations.

This technical report presents a comprehensive overview of the pilot initiative for site-specific and season-smart fertilizer recommendations (SSFR) implemented during the 2022/2023 wheat farming season in Ethiopia. The initiative, led by key demand partners such as Digital Green in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), utilized the advisoryintegrated with the Ethiopian Digital Agro-Climate Advisory Platform (EDACaP), targeting smallholder farmers through various dissemination channels.