The pastoral systems of Eastern Africa have been affected by the alternated incidence of recurrent drought and flood for the last decades, aggravating poverty and local conflicts.

Trees in dryland forests and wooded areas provide key ecosystem services such as animal feed, timber, fruits and, regulation of soil and water cycles. Equally, the presence of livestock in dryland woody areas can also play an important role in the local ecosystem; not only are they a source of income for local communities, but they also help vegetation and mobilise stored biomass.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) production has considerable socio-economic values in sub-Saharan Africa for food security and to serve the increased industrial demands due to high population pressure and climate change. However, the production and productivity of the crop are yet to be expounded in Nigeria for economic gains.

Over the last 30 years, the consumption of meat, milk and eggs in low- and middle-income (LMICs) countries has more than doubled (FAOSTAT, accessed 28/5/21). Population growth, urbanization, income gains and globalization continue to fuel the growth.

This note proposes a roadmap to advise public and private investors, banks, corporates, and NGOs, on how to mainstream gender smart investing to scale climate-smart agriculture (CSA).

CONTEXT

CONTEXT: The Greater Mekong Subregion has been undergoing rapid agricultural transformation over the last
decades, as traditional diverse subsistence-oriented agriculture is evolving towards intensified commercial
production systems. Negative environmental impacts often include deforestation, nutrient pollution, and
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

While traditional scaling for integrated pest management (IPM) in Africa requires the movement of expert trainers from village to village, these efforts are often costly, time-inefficient, hampered by distance, and became impossible under COVID-19's movement restrictions (despite tremendously increased public need for IPM-scaling knowledge).

Structural change is integral to evolving economies (Goddard et al., 1993). Although increased agricultural productivity has allowed the release of resources needed by other sectors of the economy, structural change in agriculture usually has a negative connotation in public debate (Balmann and Valentinov, 2016).

Partially protected areas are now the dominant global form of spatial management aimed at preserving ecosystem integrity and managing human use. However, most evaluations of their efficacy use only a narrow set of conservation indicators that reflect a fraction of ways in which protection can succeed or fail.