In early 2018, Action Aid Haiti (AAH) approached the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), to collaborate in a project that in the context of climate change, would promote the production of environmentally sustainable crops, and reduce the vulnerability of persons particularly women in rural communities. CTA, based on its mandate and strategic plan for the Caribbean region, agreed to this collaboration.

Various countries have made significant progress in translating climate ambition into national action through legislation and policies addressing adaptation and mitigation. There is, however, a gap in the translation of national policies into local actions. Bridging this divide requires developing the capacity of technical officers and policymakers at multiple scales, including at the subnational and local community levels, to facilitate effective policy implementation.

CONTEXT
Cocoa agroforestry systems differ in the diversity of shade tree species composition. Though cocoa benefits from shade, there is a lack of species-specific information on shade trees that enhance soil fertility and yield.
OBJECTIVE
We examined how soil characteristics and cocoa yield were affected by eight commonly retained forest tree species, compared with unshaded control plots over a 3-year period.
METHODS

Maize is an important staple crop for the majority of the population in Uganda. However, in tropical and subtropical climates, maize is frequently contaminated with aflatoxins, a group of cancer-causing and immuno-suppressive mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus section Flavi fungi. In Uganda, there is limited knowledge about the causal agents of aflatoxin contamination. The current study determined both the aflatoxin levels in pre-harvest maize across Uganda and the structures of communities of aflatoxin-producing fungi associated with the maize.

Management practices such as tillage, crop rotation, irrigation, organic and inorganic inputs application are known to influence diversity and function of soil microbial populations. In this study, we investigated the effect of conventional versus organic farming systems at low and high input levels on structure and diversity of prokaryotic microbial communities. Soil samples were collected from the ongoing long-term farming system comparison trials established in 2007 at Chuka and Thika in Kenya. Physicochemical parameters for each sample were analyzed.

Climate models predict decreasing precipitation and increasing air temperature, causing concern for the future of cocoa in the major producing regions worldwide. It has been suggested that shade could alleviate stress by reducing radiation intensity and conserving soil moisture, but few on-farm cocoa studies are testing this hypothesis.

Quantifying the welfare benefits of climate information services (CIS), which provide farmers with weather forecast information and advice can be empirically challenging, given farmers' agricultural investment may increase or decrease depending on the content of the forecast and their levels of risk aversion. In this paper, we quantify the benefits of CIS in terms of the extent that forecast information is able to align a farmer's agricultural investments to those that they would have chosen if they had known the weather realization with full certainty.

Chaya is a highly nutritious perennial leafy vegetable native to Mesoamerica. This drought-resistant crop has low production and consumption levels in Guatemala, but has the potential to help agriculture and food systems be more nutritious and resilient. This study analyzed the value chain of chaya in Guatemala, and identified bottlenecks and opportunities for its use-enhancement. This research, the first of its kind applied to this crop in Guatemala, combined Rapid Market Appraisal tools.

The cattle sector is strategic for both the economic development and food security of Africa, but the low availability and quality of forage puts the most vulnerable population at risk. Hybrid forages are an alternative for enhancing both food security and sustainability of the sector but adoption levels are still low in Africa, which is related to various factors such as the availability of seeds.

Enset [Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman] is an important food security crop of the Southern Ethiopian highlands. The cultivation of enset is characterised by a wide variety of landraces, suitable to varying agro-ecological conditions and with multiple uses by households. The objective of this paper is to present enset landrace diversity, characteristics and uses in Ethiopia.

Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) is a destructive disease caused by Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum (Xvm) bacterium that indiscriminately infects all banana varieties grown in East and Central Africa (ECA). In this region, BXW was first reported in 2001 in Uganda and was projected to eliminate >90% of Uganda’s bananas worth US$4 billion if not controlled in less than 10 years. Lack of basic information led to application of control approaches that were based on similarity of BXW symptoms to those of Moko disease of bananas.

This report aims to provide a structured analysis of a stakeholder assessment related to
sustainable animal productivity for livelihoods, nutrition, and Gender Inclusion in Mali. This
analysis is part of the CGIAR initiative SAPLING, with the primary goal of understanding and
identifying the role of various stakeholders, their potential contributions, and avenues for
collaboration to ensure the successful implementation of SAPLING’s innovation packages
(IP) and the desired outcomes of the initiative. This work aims at: i) Identifying wich relevant