How many farmers in 2030 and how many will adopt climate resilient innovations?

Despite an increasingly urbanized world, the number of smallholder farmers will continue growing fast, from 550 million farms today to roughly 750 million by 2030. In the past 15 years, the adoption of agricultural innovations among smallholder farmers was low, commonly ranging between 0 and 15%. Climate change, land degradation, steady urbanization, population growth and other global changes means smallholder agriculture has to rapidly evolve, has to adopt climate-resilient technologies on a large scale, and make the most of social and economic innovations. We can learn from and replicate the successful examples of scaling up of innovations such as mobile technologies and services, so that many smallholder farmers become climate resilient by 2030. 

Efficacy of dehydroepiandrosterone to overcome the effect of ovarian ageing (DITTO): a proof of principle randomised controlled trial protocol

Introduction: Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) has been proposed to improve pregnancy rates in women with diminished ovarian reserve undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. However, evidence regarding its efficacy is supported by a limited number of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). This doubleblinded RCT aims to measure the effect of DHEA supplementation prior to and during controlled ovarian hyperstimulation on ovarian response prior to IVF treatment in women predicted to have poor ovarian reserve. Methods and analysis: Sixty women with ovarian antral follicle count ≤10 and serum anti-Mullerian hormone ≤5 pmol/L undergoing IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment at the Nurture fertility clinic, Nottingham will be recruited. They will be randomised to either receive DHEA capsule 75 mg/day or placebo for at least 12 weeks before egg collection. All participants will undergo standard long down regulation protocol using human menopausal gonadotropin 300 IU/day. Serum samples and follicular fluids at the time of egg collection will be collected for hormonal immunoassays. For ICSI participants, cumulus cells stripped from oocyte will be collected for cumulus gene expression analyses regarding oocyte competence. Microdrops of oocyte culture media before the time of ICSI will be assessed for glucose, pyruvate and lactate utilisation. Embryo transfer will be performed on day 2, 3 or 5 based on the number and quality of the embryos available. Pregnancy will be defined as urine pregnancy test positive (biochemical pregnancy) and 6–8 weeks ultrasound scan with fetal heart beat (clinical pregnancy) and live birth. It is planned to perform the molecular and nutritional fingerprint analyses in batches after finishing the clinical phase of the study. Ethics and dissemination: The approval of the study was granted by the NHS Research Ethics Committee (Ref number NRES 12/EM/0002), the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust Research and Development department. All participants shall provide written informed consent before being randomised into allocated treatment groups

The CCAFS Flagship Program 4 Trial on Results-Based Management: Progress Report

This document summarises what was achieved during 2014 by the CCAFS RBM trial. This is followed by a discussion of the prerequisites for a CRP to implement successful RBM, what we mean by “successful RBM”, what has worked according to expectations, and what was done when things did not work out as expected. We summarise a few key results from an on-line survey of project participants conducted in November. We conclude with a summary of our overall learnings about RBM during 2014

Plant genetic engineering, climate change and food security

This paper explores whether crop genetic engineering can contribute to addressing food security, as well as enhancing human nutrition and farming under a changing climate. The review is based on peer-refereed literature, using results to determine the potential of this gene technology. It also provides a brief summary of issues surrounding this genetic enhancement approach to plant breeding, and the impacts on farming, livelihoods, and the environment achieved so far. The genetic engineering pipeline looks promising, particularly for adapting more nutritious, input-efficient crops in the development of the world’s farming systems

In search of optimal stocking regimes in semi-arid grazing lands : one size does not fit all

We discuss the search for optimal stocking regimes in semi-arid grazing lands. We argue that ‘one size does not fit all’ and that different stocking regimes are appropriate under different conditions. This paper is an attempt to move beyond polarization of the current debate towards a more integrative and flexible approach to grazing management. We propose five different conditions as major influences on grazing regimes: environmental variability and predictability; degradation and thresholds; property right regimes; discount rates; and market stability and prices. We suggest a lack of connection between the micro-economics literature and natural science and social-anthropological literature. It is timely to achieve greater integration around some key questions and hypotheses, and recognize that policy prescriptions at national or even regional levels are likely to have limited value due to context specificity

CCAFS Gender Strategy

This Gender Strategy is intended to strengthen CCAFS’ development impact through the integration of gender issues into research in keeping with commitments in the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework to ensure that rural women benefit from its contribution to poverty reduction, enhanced environmental resilience, improved food security, human health and nutrition. CCAFS plans to situate its gender strategy within a broader strategy addressing social inclusion for different social groups while bearing in mind that women are central to agriculture in developing countries. This Strategy was prepared following CGIAR Guidelines for CRP Gender Strategy1 that focus on showing how the CRP will address issues of gender in its research (as distinct from gender in the workplace which will be handled separately). Accordingly, the document is organized into seven sections that together provide an explanation of how the CRP will address gender issues relevant to its research outputs, activities and outcomes and against which the CRP will report in future, as part of the CGIAR annual monitoring process

Actions needed to halt deforestation and promote climate-smart agriculture

Integrated action across Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) and agriculture is necessary to achieve mitigation and food security outcomes

Impact of Canadian tobacco packaging policy on quitline reach and reach equity

AbstractObjectiveTo examine the impact of the new Canadian tobacco package warning labels with a quitline toll-free phone number for seven provincial quitlines, focusing on treatment reach and reach equity in selected vulnerable groups.MethodsA quasi-experimental design assessed changes in new incoming caller characteristics, treatment reach for selected vulnerable sub-populations and the extent to which this reach is equitable, before and after the introduction of the labels in June, 2012. Administrative call data on smokers were collected at intake. Pre- and post-label treatment reach and reach equity differences were analysed by comparing the natural logarithms of the reach and reach equity statistics.ResultsDuring the six months following the introduction of the new warning labels, 86.4% of incoming new callers indicated seeing the quitline number on the labels. Treatment reach for the six-month period significantly improved compared to the same six-month period the year before from .042% to .114% (p<.0001) and reach equity significantly improved for young males (p<.0001) and those with high school education or less (p=.004).ConclusionsThe introduction of the new tobacco warning labels with a quitline toll-free number in Canada was associated with an increase in treatment reach. The toll-free number on tobacco warning labels aided in reducing tobacco related inequalities, such as improved reach equity for young males and those with high school or less education

Scaling up climate services for farmers: Mission Possible. Learning from good practice in Africa and South Asia

This report presents lessons learned from 18 case studies across Africa and South Asia that have developed and delivered weather and climate information and related advisory services for smallholder farmers. The case studies and resulting lessons provide insights on what will be needed to build effective national systems for the production, delivery, communication and evaluation of operational climate services for smallholder farmers across the developing world. The case studies include two national-scale programmes that have been the subject of recent assessments: India’s Integrated Agrometeorological Advisory Service (AAS) Program, which provides tailored weather-based agrometeorological advisories to millions of farmers; and Mali’s Projet d’Assistance Agro-meteorologique au Monde Rural, which provided innovative seasonal agrometeorological advisory services for smallholder farmers and 16 less mature initiatives operating at a pilot scale across Africa and South Asia. The case studies were examined from the standpoint of how they address five key challenges for scaling up effective climate services for farmers: salience, access, legitimacy, equity and integration