English

This is a success story produced by the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) under APPSA. Through partnerships with the Department of Agriculture and other players, the World Bank funded Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) supported smallholder farmers with necessary information and technologies to transform
the way they grow their soybean in order to increase farm yields and income. In collaboration with the Department of Agriculture under Extension Services the project mobilised lead farmers to host demonstration plots showcasing improved soybean production technologies.

This resource is one of the APPSA success stories for Mozambique. It narrates the story of Mrs Isaltina Aly Trigo. Mrs Trigo is a smallholder farmer from Malema district in Nampula province. She has been growing soybeans for the past several years. Like many other farmers in the area, she views soybean as a crop with cash potential. The crop produces high yields, and is relatively unaffected by pests commonly found among other staple crops. Although technologies for increased soybean production and productivity, local processing and utilization options have been developed for use by farmers, Mrs Trigo and many other smallholder farmers are not aware of these technological options. This is attributed to among other reasons, inadequate popularization of these technologies. In 2013 the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) began working with Mrs Trigo and other farmers in Nampula province in up-scaling improved soybean processing and utilization technologies so as to improve food and nutrition security as well income generation for the smallholder famers. Since working with the project, Mrs Trigo has been processing her soybeans into milk and bagias. Initially, the soybean milk was just for home consumption while the bagias were for home consumption and for sale. With time, she increased the quantities of her processed products, and started selling both products.

This presentation contains information on the institution CCARDESA and its famework. It covers:

• realities of climate change in SADC
• CCARDESA mandate and ICKM actions
• the ACCRA project and the ICKM component
• the SAAIKS platform (conception and development)
• Lessons learnt
• Way forward

The volume of international climate finance for adaptation is increasing. At the same time, adaptation planning is preparing the ground for implementation in many countries. The demand for adaptation technologies is likewise growing, while improving access to adaptation technologies has become a priority for political actors. To meet these needs, a new institutional set up was created following the UNFCCC Cancun Agreements of 2010 called the ‘Technology Mechanism’, which is designed to promote the transfer of such technologies to developing countries. The mechanism is comprised of the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN).

This policy brief addresses the difficulties of determining vulnerability through global indices and gives recommendations on how to use and interpret them including in the international climate policy context. The policy brief is based on a comparison of country rankings of four common vulnerability and risk indices

The Paris Agreement calls for enhanced transparency of adaptation action and an assessment of collective progress via a Global Stocktake. This policy brief outlines how country-specific monitoring and evaluation (M&E) can provide valuable information on adaptation actions and results and how this supports the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Based on good practice examples from pioneering countries, recommendations are provided how to develop national adaptation M&E systems that can track progress and inform decision making.

Implementing adaptation under the Paris Agreement: how can comprehensive climate risk management (CRM) support National Adaptation Planning (NAP) processes and NDC implementation

The present study on the “Use of ICT for Agriculture in GIZ projects – Status quo, opportunities and challenges” is meant to be a practical guideline for projects and planning officers alike. It is based on an analysis of past, current and planned ICT4Ag experiences in GIZ, with special focus on extension, training and agricultural value chain development, and enriched with experiences and lessons learned by other developing organizations.

The objective of the study was to provide a general overview on the development, risks and potentials of ICT4Ag, to do a stock taking and compile a list of ongoing GIZ projects with ICT4Ag experience, to gain more insight in the current application and use of ICT solutions in GIZ agriculture programs and projects, to collect the available results and learnings ‘from the field’, and to match these with global lessons on ICT4D and ICT4Ag.

Agriculture remains the economic backbone of most developing countries in terms of gross domestic product, employment and rural livelihoods. This is especially true of many Sub-Saharan African countries where agriculture accounts for more than 50% of GDP output and employs around 70% of the population.

Access to and the provision of demand-driven financial services is key if agriculture is to grow and is to play a central and decisive role in reducing poverty and hunger and generating much needed jobs in rural areas. At the same time, it is also one of the main constraints holding back the development and professionalization of agriculture and the food sector. Access to financial services remains one of the key challenges for rural areas in general and for agriculture in particular.

Financing agriculture, or more broadly speaking providing access to and offering financial services for agriculture, is complex and requires not only a deep understanding of agriculture, but also of financial institutions.

Agricultural biodiversity (or agrobiodiversity) includes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, and all components of biological diversity that constitute the agricultural ecosystems. The main challenge for the agricultural sector is to simultaneously secure enough high-quality agricultural production for global food and nutrition security, conserve biodiversity and manage natural resources, as well as improve human health and wellbeing, especially for poor people in developing countries.

This sample of factsheets covers the following topics:

Factsheet 1: Understanding agrobiodiversity

Factsheet 2: Agrobiodiversity - plant genetic resources

Factsheet 3: Agrobiodiversity – animal genetic resources

Factsheet 4: International agreements on agrobiodiversity

Factsheet 5: Incentives for agrobiodiversity conservation

Factsheet 6: Adding value to agrobiodiversity

Factsheet 7: Agrobiodiversity for survival