News Overview

Quezon City has turned support for food vendors into policy. The Local Government of Quezon City has recently institutionalized a pilot project that aims to empower informal sector food vendors, the people that feed the city everyday. The decision marks an important moment where research and local policy came together to create real change. The city government, together with CGIAR, has launched the Vendor Business School (VBS) Ordinance (Ordinance No. 3430-S-2025) in an event on 20 January 2026. What started in 2024 as a small research‑driven partnership between CGIAR and the Quezon City Government is now embedded in city policy, showing how evidence, local leadership, and everyday realities can come together to improve livelihoods and strengthen urban food systems. The institutionalization of VBS represents a significant step forward for urban food systems and micro-entrepreneurship. Under the ordinance, Quezon City aims to further strengthen vendors through comprehensive learning on safe food handling, climate change adaptation, and sustainability, ensuring that vendors are prepared to meet both present and future challenges.

In this post, we examine that challenge and propose a solution to enable a rapprochement between content producers and data-hungry AI developers: content licensing agreements.

Popular TV show demonstrates the power of connecting weather data with farming decisions across Zambia.

Fighting climate change requires a comprehensive strategy that spans energy, transport, and, crucially, food and agriculture. Halting deforestation and adopting sustainable practices in irrigation, biodiversity management, and land use, are imperative. Plant breeding can help.

In northern Kenya, KAZNET - a CGIAR digital platform - is empowering herders to collect, share, and act on real-time data about rangelands, markets, and livestock, blending traditional knowledge with technology for stronger, climate-smart livelihoods.

Silage is vital for Kenya’s smallholder dairy farmers, yet poor quality limits productivity. A CGIAR / ILRI demand-driven study in Nandi and Bomet reveals implementation gaps beyond adoption, highlighting farmer-led learning and evidence-based interventions to improve silage quality, yields, and incomes.

Food systems in Bangladesh are rapidly evolving in response to population growth, urbanization, and climate change. Addressing constraints such as affordability, availability, and desirability of nutritious foods, has emerged as an urgent policy priority, requiring integrated approaches that translate research into actionable strategies.

Banana production on Ukerewe Island collapsed after Banana Bunchy Top Disease infected more than 85% of plants, driven by infected planting material and aphid transmission. A coordinated response led by IITA and national partners combined eradication, fallow periods, and local production of certified BBTV-free planting material using macro-propagation. By 2025, clean plantlets were back in farmers’ fields, restoring yields and establishing a community-owned model for long-term disease control.