climate change Archives

Crop innovation: Mitigating the impact of the climate crisis in Africa

Adopting drought-tolerant (DT) maize varieties has helped lift millions of people above Africa’s poverty line. In his recently launched book, How to avoid a climate disaster: The solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need, Bill Gates mentioned this innovation, singling out CGIAR as being “at the forefront of supporting the world to feed itself…

PlantVillage NuruAI app among key innovations supporting poor farmers to cope with climate change

In his newly launched book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need,” Bill Gates singled out CGIAR centers, which have been at the forefront of supporting the world to feed itself through research including developing improved higher-yielding varieties of important staples such as maize and rice, as doing work that…

Making a case for migrants’ originating households in Malawi

According to research, migration for employment is a key feature of youth mobility in certain parts of Africa. Individuals migrate primarily to improve their social status and learn new skills and trades. Internal migration—both rural to urban and rural to rural—of youth is also increasing due to lack of employment opportunities and other factors, including…

Scientists discuss ways to manage climate risks in protecting plant health

CGIAR, in conjunction with various partners including the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), has launched a series of webinars to celebrate the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH), which continues in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption. The four-webinar series is themed “Unleashing the Potential of Plant Health.” The first webinar, “Climate change and…

Tanzania farmers winning against climate change

“Climate change has been affecting us greatly. For example, in the past, we knew when the growing seasons were. Now the rains sometimes come early and sometimes they are late. Sometimes we get a big harvest, and sometimes we get very little,” says Hassan Haji Fumu, a farmer from Mahonda village in Kaskazini B district,…

Partners of CSA capacity building project deliberate on sustainability and scaling up

The Building Capacity for Resilient Food Security project met with partners in preparation for its fourth and last year. The meeting’s objective was to share updates and deliberate on final-year activities and how best to ensure the sustainability of project outputs. The project meeting, which took place at the IITA Eastern Africa Hub in Dar…

GLFLive on gene banks and COVID-19

Head of IITA Germplasm Health Unit, Lava Kumar, will be participating at the next GLF Live, which will take place on 13 May. Landscape News of the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is organizing this series of live interviews with experts examining the linkages between COVID-19 and climate change. This edition of GLF Live will focus on the relationship between COVID-19, genebanks,…

Maize project supports partners in COVID-19 response

As the world continues the fight to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, food production, employment, income and welfare of people in Africa, as well as in other parts of the world, need to be given extra attention. More than 70% of the rural population in West and Central Africa depend on subsistence farming, and this is…

IITA scientists seek to improve soybean yields to bridge SSA demand gap

IITA scientists through research, have revealed the current status of soybean in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), while exploring options that could reduce import dependency on soybean in SSA despite the challenges from climate change. A paper published in the Food and Energy Security journal revealed that this research is the first to analyze plausible futures for…

IITA trains tutors on climate smart agriculture for sustainable food security in Tanzania

IITA-Tanzania, as part of the Building Capacity for Resilient Food Security Project, trained 33 tutors from agricultural training institutes across 14 regions in Tanzania on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices for the various agroecological zones. The training is part of the project’s objective to build the country’s capacity to effectively respond to the…