A group of crop and food storage facilities in the west of Omdurman, Sudan, burn after being looted and set aflame in June 2023. Photo Credit: Getty Images IFPRI Blog Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a devastating war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. What began as a struggle for power has turned
Togo’s farmers struggle with poor soils and declining yields. The reason: low awareness of nutrients status of soils and inefficient fertilizer use. A regional initiative is helping smallholder farmers in Togo farm fertile ground again. The Regional Hub in West Africa and the Sahel is driving a fresh initiative to improve fertility and soil health by promoting efficient fertilizer use
This was not just another expo. It was International MSMEs Day 2025, and the spotlight was on the 61 businesses supported through the Business Acceleration for Youth project, implemented by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in Malawi. From high-growth startups to established SMEs, the event celebrated a shared journey of innovation, resilience, and scale. Held under the theme “Business
The new initiative leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to deliver hyper-local insights for climate-resilient agriculture Revolutionizing how farmers anticipate and adapt to climate variability, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has joined forces with leading national and international institutions to launch a cutting-edge initiative that harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
In June 2025, a multi-stakeholder field visit was conducted to assess and enhance the role of aggregated farms and community seed banks in promoting climate-resilient agriculture in Kisumu County, Kenya. The visit, organized under the Biodiversity for Resilient Ecosystems in Agricultural Landscapes (B-REAL) project, was led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in collaboration with Kisumu County
CGIAR and partners in Ghana are using a climate-smart cropping calendar to help farmers make timely, informed decisions. At a recent Kumasi workshop, they refined the tool to boost behavior change and climate resilience in smallholder agriculture. As climate variability intensifies and agricultural systems grow more complex, the imperative to bridge scientific research with real-time, actionable farmer insights becomes
HarvestPlus’ breakthrough collaborative work with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India on zinc-enriched sorghum is now allowing the adoption of zinc enriched sorghum in Saudi Arabia and Sudan—two countries confronting high levels of micronutrient deficiency and food system stress. The expansion marks a critical step in scaling biofortified crops from a national success to
Connected Breeding, a new breeding strategy by IRRI, is set to revolutionize rice breeding by unlocking complex genetic diversity from gene banks and integrating it into elite breeding genotypes. This cutting-edge approach overcomes the limits of traditional methods, accelerating the development of climate-resilient, salt- and flood-tolerant rice for the world’s most vulnerable regions. By Waseem Hussain, Mahender Anumalla, Margaret Catolos, Joie Ramos, Ma Teresa Sta.