Agriculture
Reply affidavit on behalf of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) regarding state of groundwater in Haryana, 03/05/2025
Reply affidavit on behalf of the Central Ground Water Board in the matter of Suo Moto case titled "Haryana 60.48% groundwater over exploited Kurukshetra worst Jhajjar best says" appearing in the Tribune, January 8, 2025. The CGWA report, May 3, 2025 addresses the issue of groundwater exploitation and violation of …Energized: Policy innovation to power the transformation of Africa’s agriculture and food system
"Energized: Policy innovations to power the transformation of Africa’s agriculture and food system" – new report by the Malabo Montpellier Panel highlights the promising energy-related strategies, policies and technologies emerging across Africa's agricultural value chain. The report identifies both successes and challenges in improving the rural poor’s access to energy …Weather shocks, agricultural productivity and farmer suicides in India
There are several reasons for farmer depression leading sometimes to the extreme measure of committing suicide. Globalization , commercialization , modernisation, erratic climatic conditions, individual expectations, contagion and government policies are some of the reasons attributed to farmer‘s suicides . This study examines linkages between weather shock induced changes in …Empowering smallholder farmers through farmer organizations: insights from Kenya and Burkina Faso
The market-driven agricultural transformation of the global food system requires all, directly and indirectly, participating actors to compete efficiently and to adapt to changes in consumer demand and buyer requirements. Regarding product quantity and quality, smallholders, in particular, have to increase their reliability in order to be able to compete …The narrative on rural youth and economic opportunities in Africa: facts, myths and gaps
A narrative on rural youth in Africa has continued to evolve in policy circles around the world. Much of it is driven by population statistics that point to an imminent youth bulge in Africa and concerns about economic stagnation for the continent. This paper reviews the narrative on rural youth …The narrative on rural youth and economic opportunities in Africa: facts, myths and gaps
A narrative on rural youth in Africa has continued to evolve in policy circles around the world. Much of it is driven by population statistics that point to an imminent youth bulge in Africa and concerns about economic stagnation for the continent. This paper reviews the narrative on rural youth …African agricultural mechanization: myths, realities and an emerging research agenda
African farm systems remain the least mechanized of all continents. There were substantial state-led efforts to promote agricultural mechanization during the 1960s and 1970s, but these efforts failed, which led to a subsequent neglect of mechanization, both in practice and in academia. In practice, this situation has changed more recently …Conservation versus food production in Africa: better managing trade-offs
Agricultural expansion is the greatest driver of the loss of nature and its biodiversity and ecosystem services worldwide. In Africa, this is primarily the expansion of food crops to meet growth in domestic food demand. Further losses are inevitable before the situation stabilises. But they could be greatly reduced by …Impact evaluation of the Maharashtra CAIM programme
The Vidarbha region in Maharashtra since long been facing an acute agrarian crisis, causing distress to a large part of the local population whose primary occupation is agriculture. The crisis has been shaped by a number of factors, including fragmentation of land leading to tiny landholdings, scanty and irregular rainfall, …Training workshop report: implementation of the CSA monitoring to assess adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural options and related outcomes in Kaffrine Climate-Smart village (Senegal)
Led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Program is a collaboration among all 15 CGIAR Research Centers. It brings together some of the world's best researchers in agricultural science, climate science, environmental and social sciences to identify and address the …Irrigation-nutrition linkages: evidence from northern Ghana
The paper analyze the linkages between irrigation and nutrition using data from irrigators and non-irrigators in Northern Ghana. The results show that (i) there is a modest difference in the overall household dietary diversity score between irrigators and non-irrigators, (ii) there are significant differences in the consumption of animal source …Voluntary guidelines for the conservation and sustainable use of farmers’ varieties/landraces
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations published new guidelines aimed at assuring crop diversity and farmers' resilience to plant genetic resource loss. The Voluntary Guidelines for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Farmers Varieties/Landraces are a valuable aid to countries in developing national plans to conserve these …Uptake and impact of climate-smart agriculture on food security, incomes and assets in East Africa
Farmers in East Africa are experiencing increasing livelihood challenges attributed to increasing scarcity of agricultural land, steep rises in food prices, deteriorating soil fertility and associated declining crop yields, poor market access and, in some cases unclear land tenure systems (Yamano et al. 2011). Climate change compounds these challenges, with …Energy in and from agriculture in the African Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC): a review
This publication presents the key elements of a review of African Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement through the lens of FAO’s programme on Energy-smart food for people and climate. The paper aims to guide parties in the implementation of their NDCs and ensure future commitments are more comparable, …Technologies for climate-resilient smallholder agriculture: sharing practices from Brazil with Africa
Brazil and Africa share similar environmental, climate and social conditions, and both face similar development challenges. This creates interesting opportunities for South-South collaboration through technology transfer in several areas, including agriculture, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and value chains development. Drawing on its fundamental goal of promoting rural development, as …Technologies for climate-resilient smallholder agriculture: sharing practices from Brazil with Africa
Brazil and Africa share similar environmental, climate and social conditions, and both face similar development challenges. This creates interesting opportunities for South-South collaboration through technology transfer in several areas, including agriculture, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and value chains development. Drawing on its fundamental goal of promoting rural development, as …2019 Annual trends and outlook report: gender equality in rural Africa - from commitments to outcomes
Gender-sensitive policy and programming have an integral role to play in fostering inclusive agricultural growth to meet the commitments of African countries to the Malabo Declaration goals. The 2019 Annual Trends and Outlook Report from ReSAKSS applies a gender lens to key issues that must be addressed to fully achieve …Managing climate risks through social protection: reducing rural poverty and building resilient agricultural livelihoods
Given the imminent challenges climate change poses for poverty reduction and sustainable development, the need for coherent and integrated climate risk management approaches that address the underlying causes of vulnerability – and that simultaneously increase the ability of the rural poor to adapt to and cope with natural hazards - …Vehicles for scaling out mitigation options in rice production in Vietnam: cooperative and contract farming systems for water management
Greenhouse gas emissions from rice production have been identified as a key mitigation focus for Vietnam to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions committed to the Paris Agreement. Shifting to a production landscape that adopts Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), which refer to the practice wherein fields are intermittently drained and …Climate-smart practices for intensive rice-based systems in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal
This publication presents the outcomes of initiatives promoting climate-smart agricultural practices and technologies in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal. It emphasizes learnings from a technical assistance project that aimed to (i) identify constraints on and support for scaling up water-saving mechanized technologies; (ii) demonstrate agricultural practices that can improve crop productivity, …Draft Seeds Bill, 2019
The revised draft Seeds Bill 2019, which the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare placed in the public domain recently for suggestions and comments, seems to be a watered down version of a draft prepared about nine years ago by the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Among other things, …