This first video of the series, "Women’s Organizations – Cultivating Collaboration”, witness the transformative impact of women-led initiatives on local communities in India which are of great importance when promoting agroecological practices. Through farming projects, cooperatives, and agroecological training programs, women are fostering resilience and solidarity, strengthening the fabric of...

Despite a plethora of emerging alternatives under the broad rubric of agroecology, sustainable transitions in Indian agriculture are caught between institutional inertia and lock-ins of its vast agricultural establishment on the one hand and a pro-active state promoting a natural farming. This push for Zero-Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), while welcome...

This first video of the series, "Women’s Organizations – Cultivating Collaboration”, witness the transformative impact of women-led initiatives on local communities in India which are of great importance when promoting agroecological practices. Through farming projects, cooperatives, and agroecological training programs, women are fostering resilience and solidarity, strengthening the fabric of...

Extreme heat is a deadly natural hazard that disproportionately affects women in South Asia, who are at greater risk for heat-related illnesses and mortality due to physiological differences, limited access to resources, and societal roles as caregivers. This vulnerability extends to maternal and neonatal health, as extreme heat is linked...

The consumption of unhealthy and environmentally unsustainable diets is a major societal challenge because of its impacts on human health and the environment. The adoption of micronutrient-rich diets with relatively low pressure on natural resources is an important development target at the intersection between sustainability and public health goals. Pulses are known for being...

Many policy makers and academics striving for more gender equality consider joint property rights as preferable over sole rights, since the latter often discriminate against women. Several governments in low-, middle- and high-income countries have therefore imposed joint rights through modifications of statutory law or mandatory joint property registration. We...

Food environments are a critical place within the food system to implement interventions aimed at enabling sustainable diets. In this perspective article, we argue for the need for food environment research to more comprehensively examine the different types of food environments that people access within their communities to ensure that...

This study explores the complex dynamics of Fiji’s sugarcane industry, shedding light on the challenges it faces and the implications for agricultural system resilience and sustainability. The primary aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between climatic and non-climatic stressors and farmers’ decisions to abandon sugarcane farming. A...

Key messages • Potato zero-tillage and rice straw mulching (PZTM) was introduced in the fallow season as a strategy for climate adaptation in Khulna where potato is a new crop to grow.• 56% (239 HHs) of the intervention households adopted PZTM in the following cropping season without any subsidies or...

Rice field ecosystems make up the majority of the agricultural land in the Lower Mekong region (Ingalls et al. 2018). In Cambodia, WorldFish research found that one hectare of a rice field ecosystem can provide enough wild fish and other aquatic animals to feed 2.6 people for a year (Freed...

Women’s empowerment has been associated with improved nutritional outcomes in various settings. However, the gains from empowerment do not necessarily accrue to different members of the same household in the same manner. Furthermore, the relationship between empowerment and nutrition itself is likely to be shaped by the overall level of...

The island of New Guinea is one of the world’s highest diversity areas in terms of its 13,600 vascular plant species. It is also one of the least botanically explored parts of the world, so documentation of the flora is very important. The documentation of palms is as important as...

This Country Gender Assessment of the Agriculture and Rural Sectors (CGA-ARS) in Pakistan identifies several gaps, challenges, priorities, and opportunities related to gender equality and rural women’s empowerment. It offers an evidence-informed analysis of rural women’s experiences, challenges and opportunities in the context of sociocultural norms and gendered power dynamics...

Coffee is one of the most important smallholder cash crops in Papua New Guinea. It accounted for $156 million of export earnings, 13% of agricultural export revenues, and 1.4% of total export revenues in PNG in 2021. According to the PNG Rural Household Survey 2023, approximately 55% of sampled households in the...

Food security and dietary diversity, defined as providing either physical (availability) or economic (accessibility) access to food, are linked with access to and control over productive resources and is a highly-gendered phenomenon. In Nepal, labor out-migration has increased household income and may have increased people’s ability to access diverse food...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected vulnerable households’ livelihoods in developing countries. Using high-frequency phone survey data from the World Bank, we assess rural Indian households’ vulnerability and poverty status during the pandemic. Results reveal that over three-fifths of Indian rural households are vulnerable to poverty in the...

Myanmar ranks as the world's third-largest pulse producer, following Canada and India, cultivating crops like black gram, pigeon pea, chickpea, and green gram. Green gram constitutes a third of total pulse exports. To enhance productivity, quality, market competitiveness, and exports, Myanmar can leverage improved crop production technologies and adopt good...

Sweetpotato is considered a climate adaptation option due to its relative tolerance to heat and salinity. The Mekong Region is the largest sweetpotato producing area in Vietnam with a stable export market demand. CGIAR Asian Mega Deltas Initiative has been exploring the potential of incorporating sweetpotato production in the rice...

Many countries have integrated agroforestry into their sustain-able development policies, particularly in Southeast Asia. In Timor-Leste, the national strategy to promote agroforestry has adopted a modern, technique-oriented approach focused on crop rotation, intercropping and agro-silvo-pasture. In so doing, it has largely overlooked the pre-existence, diversity and perfor-mance of traditional agroforestry...

Over the past two decades, the Mekong region has experienced significant transformation of its agricultural sector from subsistence farming to export crops driven by the expansion of agricultural land and of irrigation, plus intensification thanks to mechanization and the use of chemical inputs. In the context of agrarian transition, maintaining...