News Overview

Launched in January 2025 as a DTA-linked project, Fairgrounds aims to be the gateway for CGIAR to access global research data, while also opening CGIAR’s research data to the world.

Malawian smallholder farmers are turning beans into income and nutrition. Through improved seeds, cooperatives, and market access, farmers boost yields, earn profits, and build resilience, transforming livelihoods and strengthening local seed systems.

Ugandan farmers now master the value addition process to shift from selling raw grains to creating value-added and nutritious products, fostering income security and improve nutrition in their communities.

Homa Bay County leadership, researchers, and farmers met in November 2025 to co-produce climate-smart bean advisories, ensuring timely guidance for the ongoing short rains as climate risks continue to intensify.

Huge datasets are the cornerstone of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, including the large language models (LLMs) that power chatbots and other generative AI applications.

We often think of our food system in simple terms: farmers grow food, it travels to a market, and we buy it. It’s a straightforward path from farm to table. But the reality of how people access and eat food is far more complex, filled with hidden challenges and surprising social dynamics that shape the health of entire communities. The gap between our assumptions and the truth can prevent us from making effective changes.

A recent three-day workshop in Tawa (Makueni County, Kenya) convened researchers, extension agents, private-sector representatives, NGOs, and farmers to tackle a critical barrier in Kenyan agriculture: scaling innovation. This workshop focused on moving beyond successful pilots to develop strategies for achieving widespread, lasting impact for resilient and productive smallholder systems across Kenya.

Many African nations face significant, interconnected development challenges, including over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture, heavy dependence on hydropower for electricity generation, rapid population growth, and related economic pressures. These vulnerabilities are heightened by the impact of climate change and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts, which reduce hydropower output and diminish agricultural productivity.