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In Madagascar today, the stakes for agricultural transformation could not be higher. Agriculture is the primary livelihood for most Malagasy households, employing about 78% of the workforce, with roughly 80% of the population relying on agriculture (FAO/World Bank data). Climate shocks—cyclones, droughts, and increasingly erratic rainfall—regularly disrupt planting seasons and destroy harvests. In many communities, the agricultural calendar that farmers once relied upon has become increasingly unpredictable.

Launched in March 2026, this partnership unites science, innovation, and local expertise to strengthen food systems, improve livelihoods, and scale climate-resilient solutions across southern Madagascar.

Nigeria’s dominance in global yam production may soon translate into economic leadership, following a decisive National Yam Advocacy Summit convened by IITA–CGIAR under the PROSSIVA program in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Abuja recently.

Ensuring top-notch equipment reaches breeding research stations worldwide is vital, but equally crucial is empowering trialling and nursery teams with the skills to continuously generate high-quality breeding data.  Effective management of breeding trials is essential for establishing selection conditions that lead to distinct trait expression among genotypes. Good trial management minimizes experimental errors, thereby aiding in the identification of superior

In late 2023, Breeding Resources Initiative tasked a fast-track team of biometricians with the development of a Breeding Analytics Pipeline to support CGIAR crop breeding activities, with the endorsement of Genetic Innovation leadership. The tool is now available to internal users. The Breeding Analytics (BA) Pipeline as a cutting-edge tool designed to guide decision-making processes in global crop breeding. It

In mid-February, a dedicated gathering of biometricians and quantitative genetics experts from CGIAR’s Centers convened in Nairobi for a week-long hackathon. Their mission? To refine CGIAR’s Breeding Analytics Pipeline, a cutting-edge tool designed to guide decision-making processes in global crop breeding.  With a plethora of algorithms and software available for analyzing crop breeding data, harmonization and automation across CGIAR-NARES breeding

Also published in Farmers Review Africa, Smart Farmer Kenya, and included in Peoples’ Daily, “Challenging gender stereotypes to promote inclusion at workplace.” In agricultural research, a notable gender gap persists, particularly within the crop breeding sector. While women have often been well-represented in breeding labs and offices, they’ve been less present in field research work. In Kenya, the disparity in

Roots, tubers, and bananas (RTB) are vital food sources for over 3 billion people in Africa, offering high calorie yields per hectare and essential nutrients. More resilient to drought than other crops, RTB are crucial for poverty alleviation. Often cultivated by women, they have diverse applications, spanning from food processing and industrial use to animal feed.  But the vegetative propagation of RTB