Burundi: Breaking down barriers for beans

by Stephanie Malyon | Nov 26, 2015

As part of our contribution to the United Nations’ International Year of Pulses, we’re starting a blog series called “Bean-Growing Country of the Month.” This first article focuses on a country that is rebuilding its bean research programme with assistance from the...

Announcing a new Value Chains for Nutrition project for 2016-2018

by Natalia Gutiérrez | Nov 14, 2015

We are pleased to announce that BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) has decided to support a brand new Linking Farmers to Markets project, namely: ‘Making Value Chains Work for Food and Nutrition Security of Vulnerable Populations in...

Tailor-made CSA: adapting best-bet practices for East African smallholders

by Juliet Braslow | Oct 14, 2015

Smallholder farmers are not equal. Take Susan. She is perceived as a “small” farmer in her community of Soweto (Wote) in semi-arid Kenya. She doesn’t own land. The 0.5 ha she cultivates belong to her in-laws. The average farm size in her area is between 1 and 5ha....

CIAT strengthens partnership with Kenya

by Stephanie Malyon | Oct 8, 2015

Kenya isn’t just home to CIAT’s operations in Africa, it is home to a longstanding and successful partnership with the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) (formerly KARI). Over the years, the partners have generated major agricultural...

“White gold” beans to beat drought in Ethiopia

by Georgina Smith | Oct 5, 2015

New drought-resilient white beans – most commonly used to make baked beans – will be deployed to Ethiopia, as erratic weather threatens national production and farmers’ incomes. Severe drought in Ethiopia, Africa’s largest exporter of the bean used to make...