Africa
Conservation agriculture meets relay cropping
In 2003, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) designed a set of long-term trials in Kenya to assess sustainability and productivity effects of a set of management practices. These practices included conservation agriculture (CA), a combination of mulching, reduced tillage, and crop rotation, which has since grown to be widely promoted across Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) with good results.
SERVIR experts on ecosystem management and land-use change attend 2019 GFW Summit
The 2019 Global Forest Watch (GFW) Summit, held in Washington DC this week, opened with a retrospective on how deforestation monitoring systems have matured since their broad development in the early 2010s. Several Latin America countries have their own dedicated system. While many African and Asian countries have not yet created dedicated systems, they have come a long way in deforestation monitoring. Efforts such as Global Forest Watch, CIAT’s Terra-i system, and others are mature, providing near real-time data that can help governments, NGOs, the private sector, and others monitor and track deforestation across the world.
CIAT, World Bank and partners announce Digital Agriculture Country Profiles initiative
Building on the success of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Country Profiles, CIAT, together with the World Bank and FAO, is leading an initiative to create profiles for digital agriculture, starting with Argentina, Grenada, Kenya, Turkey and Vietnam.
Increasing soil carbon improves food security and income in Western Kenya
In most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, a greater segment of rural communities derive their livelihood from crop and livestock farming. Over the decades, effects of climate change, more so greenhouse gas emissions – specifically CO2 – have had diverse consequences on food production.
Low emission livestock – how to quantify gains across Africa?
Livestock, and especially its environmental impacts, have been hotly debated in public, science and policy arenas since more than a decade. The recently published EAT-Lancet report re-fueled the discussion, calling for reduction in consumption of animal source foods for benefits of human health and the environment. However, many voices from across Africa feel that the call for reduction of livestock production and consumption should be much more clearly targeted to industrialized countries, not regions with predominantly smallholder systems and low meat consumption.
CIAT Africa and CSAYN Kenya sign agreement to support young “agripreneurs”
To expand its support for young agricultural entrepreneurs, or “agripreneurs,” and to help cultivate the next crop of farmers in Africa, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) signed a hosting and collaboration agreement with the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN) in Kenya. The agreement will have the network’s Kenya chapter hosted at CIAT Africa’s regional office in Nairobi and outlines collaborations.
Climate-smart coffee in Uganda
At the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) we believe that adaptation to climate change should not be driven by a long series of bitter experiences of failed harvests. This is why we are part of the Feed the Future Alliance for Resilient Coffee, a consortium of non-governmental organizations and research institutions working at the intersection of climate change and coffee production.
Climate Smart Agriculture for Transformed Livelihoods
Caroline Mwongera grew up in a vibrant farm in the slopes of Mount Kenya, a mid-altitude zone where the community grew maize, beans and fruits such as banana, mango and avocado. Despite the pleasant memories, she remembers vividly communities from the lower altitudes, which were semi-arid, coming to ask for food because of drought. These occurrences would arouse her curiosity to understand and address this disparity, where one community had plenty of food and the neighboring community often faced hunger.
Strengthening institutional and human capacity on National Livestock Market Information system in Ethiopia
Even with the largest livestock population in Africa, Ethiopia does not benefit from its livestock resource due to various factors. The absence of strong market information system is one of the key challenges that resulted in a collaboration between the government of Ethiopia through the Ministry of Agriculture and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to address this challenge by developing human capacity on national livestock market information system (NLMIS).
Where do we see our world in 2050?
What will food systems, agriculture and the environment look like in 2050? Given current trends, there is a range of highly contrasting outcomes
In one scenario, these bedrocks of society will have continued down their current path and faced significantly greater challenges than they do today.
CIAT in Africa
CIAT’s vision of the promise of tropical agriculture is especially relevant to sub-Saharan Africa. Nowhere does the well-being of so many people depend so much on a concerted effort to realize farming’s potential for reducing chronic hunger, opening pathways out of rural poverty, enhancing human nutrition, and improving the management of natural resources. CIAT works especially on the following themes:
- Leveraging markets through improved productivity and competitiveness
- Agriculture for improved nutrition in Africa
- Transforming farms and landscapes for sustainability
- Investment planning for resilient agriculture
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