THE GFAR BLOG

By the Kenya National Farmers’ Federation (KENAFF) Like the rest of the world, Kenya’s climate is changing. The rainy seasons’ timing and duration have shifted, making them exceedingly unpredictable. Climate change poses a significant danger to agriculture, food security, and poverty alleviation. Agriculture contributes to climate change by emitting anthropogenic greenhouse gases and converting non-agricultural … More Bolstering Kenyan farmers’ resilience to climate shocks

By Harun Cicek, Lauren Dietermann and Miguel de Porras from FiBL The West African Sahel is at the frontline of climate change with severe land degradation, water scarcity and soil erosion problems that are expected to increase in the coming years. Due to the Sahel region providing food and basic income to millions of people, several social and economic factors are increasing the pressure on the region’s natural resources.  The Sahel is already … More Building food systems resilience in the West African Sahel

By Ayyanadar Arunachalam, ICAR-Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh Plants are an important source for the sustenance of life on this planet. Among the plants, some plants are perennial, i.e. their vegetative and reproductive stage continues throughout the year. These ‘woody perennials’ include trees, palms, bamboo and shrubs. Yet, mostly woody perennials are referred … More Trees for the SDGs: Woody perennials building resilience in urban and rural landscapes

By Bethel Terefe, Gender Coordinator, CABI, and Frances Williams, Global Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, CABI Women are an important asset to the global agricultural workforce, making up 43% of the farming sector, but despite the key role they play, they often do not control decision-making on family farms and are left marginalized. Many sustainable agricultural … More Addressing social norms to help women access agricultural technologies

Blog post by Cathy Reade, Director of Outreach, Crawford Fund The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cessation of international travel in early 2020 dramatically impacted the Crawford Fund’s mentoring, training and Master Class activities. The Fund’s capacity building program has involved over 13,000 developing country agricultural scientists, extension staff and farmers in a … More No pausing for the pandemic – e-Mentoring for inclusive, equitable agriculture

Rekindling interest in wild and non-cultivated edible plants can have positive nutrition, health, and conservation outcomes Blog post by Kamal Aryal and Samuel Thomas of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu During the lockdown, there were several reports of people in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) being forced to forage for wild … More Our forgotten wild foods

Blog post by Glindys Virginia Luciano, Network Engagement Coordinator, Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) & Genna Tesdall, YPARD Director In the last several years, dialogue around safe and nutritious food has evolved from talks about productivity towards post-productionist goals. What does it really mean to consume food that is produced in an ethical manner … More Transforming the food system? Let’s talk finance.

By Samwel Onyango, Cassava project assistant and masters graduate in food safety and quality at the University of Nairobi Cassava crop has been grown along the Kenyan coast since time immemorial, but farmers scarcely appreciate the crop for its role in the country’s food and nutrition security. Nor is the historically predominant role of women … More Food heroes changing perceptions of nutrition in Kenyan Households

By Genna Tesdall, Director of Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) Global food and agriculture is finally giving a focus to youth! As a network born 15 years ago out of the need for young agricultural professionals to come together and be heard in global agriculture, we at YPARD are delighted at this development. It … More Youth in agrifood systems: more than the leaders of tomorrow

By Deston Pope and Keron Bascombe, Tech4Agri “In today’s world, the words ‘vaccine’ and ‘economy’ including the phrases ‘digital transformation’ and ‘food security’ can be heard almost every day. And yet the greatest untapped resource, our youth, still struggle to enter and maintain a livelihood within the agricultural sector.” – Keron, Creator @Tech4Agri A small … More New series #RiseofAgriculture tells the stories behind Trinidad and Tobago’s agriculture sector

By Indika Arulingam, Research Officer, International Water Management Institute and Shakuntala Thilsted, Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health, WorldFish Governments knew that youth unemployment was high before the COVID-19 pandemic, but what they failed to realize was how vulnerable even those with jobs were. Globally, youth employment fell by almost 9% in 2020 compared with 3.7% … More Reeling in economic opportunities for Africa’s youth

By Jeff Bentley, Agro-Insight Kenyan schools recently moved away from memorizing facts, and towards learning skills, knowledge and attitudes. This “competency based curriculum” (CBC) includes new topics like ICT, and agriculture. Lawrence Njagi, the CEO of Mountain Top Educational Publishers, explained that the challenge was finding a way to integrate both subjects. He eventually decided … More Videos teach Kenyan children good attitudes towards agriculture

By CGIAR Unemployment is a major issue among African youth, who constitute the largest population segment, yet often feel marginalized from the economic mainstream. Despite their best efforts, many young people find little means to meet their expectations for a better life or contribute to their countries’ economies. Higher education has grown faster than the economies they were intended to support, leaving large numbers of recent … More Youth Agripreneurs Program engages African youths into agribusiness, creating over 1 million jobs

By Vivian Atakos and Marc Ghislain, International Potato Center Successful innovation for agriculture will depend on thorough and careful understanding of the aspirations of beneficiaries and the challenges farmers face. It entails putting them at the center of these innovations. In Kabale, approximately 410 kilometres (by road), south-west of Kampala —the capital of Uganda —  and … More Defeating potato late blight with farmers’ help in Uganda

By the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Dutika Pujari, Hemanti Pujari, Pramila Gopal, and Dharani Gopal are farmers that have something in common: they all endeavored to improve their well-being, social, economic, and health status. Today, they are proud shareholders of the Adarsh Dharmagarh Women Farmers Services Producer Company Ltd (ADWFSPCL) in Kalahandi District in … More With the wind beneath our wings, we soar together and higher

GFAR’s Coordinator of the initiative on Forgotten Foods – Alessandro Meschinelli, responds to questions about ‘Participatory Innovation Development’ with excerpts from Rural Innovation Specialist and author, Laurens Van Veldhuizen. Why should we promote farmer participation? “Throughout the various new fashions that have shaped rural development programs over the past decades, increasing emphasis has been laid … More Handing over the reins back to the farmers

By Dr Monica Kansiime, Scientist-Agricultural Economist, CABI A CABI study brief has shown that three years on, the Good Seed Initiative is still reaping rewards for farmers in Tanzania. The study entitled Perspectives on sustainability of smallholder seed enterprises: a case study of African indigenous vegetables in Tanzania reveals how this initiative was instrumental in … More Three years on, the Good Seed Initiative still reaps rewards for farmers in Tanzania

By Karel Charvat, WirelessInfo and Hana Kubickova, Plan4all Since 2016, the INSPIRE Hackathon organized by Plan4all has served as a collaborative event for developers, researchers, designers and others interested in open data, volunteered geographic information and citizen observatories. The event brings together specialists from across disciplinary backgrounds to form teams around a problem or idea, … More New digital tools to support African farmers created at INSPIRE Hackathons