Livestock: climate menace or opportunity for change?

by Georgina Smith | Sep 20, 2016

This will be among topics presented by a team of CIAT’s researchers at the Tropentag 2016 conference in Vienna, Austria, themed: “Solidarity in a competing world – fair use of resources,” from September 18 – 21. Cattle production – which has a considerable...

How to move beyond technology in ‘sustainable intensification’

by Ravic Nijbroek | Aug 10, 2016

This blog, co-authored by Saurabh Arora, was first published on the STEPS Centre website.  Sustainable Intensification (SI) promises more food from the same amount of land, while minimizing pressure on the environment. In Sub-Saharan Africa, considerable research and...

Trees on agricultural land sink four times more carbon

by Georgina Smith | Aug 10, 2016

Trees grown on agricultural land significantly contribute to global carbon budgets, say authors in this recent study. If carbon from trees grown on agricultural land was well accounted for, total carbon estimates for agricultural land would be more than four times...

Bean power: Finger on the pulse of a drought-resilient future

by Georgina Smith | Aug 8, 2016

Against a hilly backdrop, Daud Bukuku and his wife Neema Obeti examine a handful of red specked beans from a large basket. The open fields behind them have just been harvested. But they’re lucky to have had a harvest at all – the beans they proudly shows us...

First drought-resilient, high iron beans for Uganda released

by Georgina Smith | Aug 8, 2016

Five new bean varieties bred with high iron and resilience to the impacts of drought have been released in Uganda for the first time. The varieties – co-developed by the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), the Rwandan Agricultural Board (RAB)...

Seeing is believing: the impact of soil management

by John Mukalama | Aug 5, 2016

For over a decade, CIAT has tested agronomic and soil management practices in Western Kenya. From minimum tillage to integrated soil fertility management, two trials, established in 2003, are the most comprehensive picture of tropical soil health that we have in...