News Overview

In the heart of Eastern and Southern Africa, where agricultural abundance meets persistent challenges, a pioneering hackathon took place on the 8-9th of November 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya. The event aimed to address urgent issues faced by smallholder farmers and agribusinesses, emphasizing the preservation, and maximizing the value of harvested crops and livestock. The hackathon brought together a diverse group

Together, they have developed a highly successful program that creates positive change for farmers, and engages all audiences in farming, with the program broadcasted on Kenya’s leading television channel ‘Citizen TV’. Carried out in Kenya, Zambia and Uganda, this one-of-a-kind reality TV show uses a ‘makeover’ model where the production team of film crew, agronomists and researchers visit chosen farms,

What does agrobiodiversity look like in Cuba? For over 10 years, Alliance researchers and partners gathered photographs while conducting fieldwork as part of a UNEP-GEF initiative dedicated to supporting sustainable agriculture in Cuba, “Conservation and Use of Agrobiodiversity in Man and the Biosphere Reserve of Cuba” (COBARB Project). In October 2023, these images were displayed in the Sapienza University Botanical Garden, Rome.

These are the questions addressed by the Climate Security Observatory (CSO): a decision support tool developed by the Alliance, to support stakeholders in understanding and responding to climate-related security risks. Extensive research – both Alliance-led and external – shows how climate variability and extreme weather events can significantly aggravate existing drivers of conflict and can indirectly exacerbate underlying challenges and

As a co-design and participatory action research (PAR) platform, the field day interfaced diverse stakeholders including farmers from 6 districts, the community leaders, their frontline extension agents and District Directors who shared lessons with the researchers: from national institutes CSIR-Crop Research Institute (CRI) and Soil Research Institute (SRI) and the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT(The Alliance).. The primary goal was

In many parts of the world, weather forecasting is a valuable resource, whether for farmers who depend on rainfall for their crops, or for communities that must prepare for possible flooding. In Honduras, a community-based initiative funded by the European Union and implemented by the Bioversity International Alliance – CIAT, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), generated a

What challenges do scientists face in bringing their innovations to market? The unique nature of the agri-food sector demands longer development periods, presents a scarcity of patient funding to drive ideas past the conceptual stage, and often a lack of incentives for scientists to brave this journey alone. Collaborative models like venture studios are providing a new framework to address

The pool of expertise also included the technical support of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Together, they embarked on a journey to create a learning experience that promises to transform our understanding and response to climate-related security risks. On November 14th, The  Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT convened key players at Trademark Hotel to validate the