Trees nurture nutrition
The Food Tree and Crop Portfolio helps with the selection of food-tree species along with complementary vegetable, pulse and staple crops.
ASEAN Guidelines for Agroforestry Development set to revolutionize land use in Southeast Asia
The endorsement of the Guidelines by the region’s ministers of agriculture and forestry paves the way for implementation to restore degraded landscapes, improve food security and livelihoods, enhance farmers’ resilience and meet nationally determined contributions to...
Refugees impatient for seedlings as UK MPs open new season of agroforestry and other tree-based solutions in NW Uganda
For ten months, World Agroforestry (ICRAF) has worked in the refugee areas of Northwest Uganda and the long dry stretches have been tough. “We planted at the right time. But we immediately faced a month and a half...
Chocolate and cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire
Cocoa contributes 20% of the Gross Domestic Product and nearly 50% of Côte d’Ivoire’s export earnings, accounting for 40% (2,019,479 tons in 2017) of world production.
Resolution on harnessing trees on farms for a green economy in the Philippines
Government agencies, the private sector, NGOs and universities want a new direction for increasing trees on farms to grow a green economy and strengthen the vulnerable archipelago It will take 206 years to restore to productivity...
A pick and a spade may triple farmers’ yields in the Kenyan drylands
A simple farming technique is proving effective in staving off food shortages in Kenya The female farmers of Makueni County in southeastern Kenya rarely expect to triumph over their parched, unpropitious soils. A pick, a spade and a...
Why China should include a gender-perspective in its climate change policies
Women are playing a leading role in coping with and adapting to climate change in the mountainous rural areas of China’s Yunnan province, where disruptions in weather patterns and increasingly extreme events are expected to impact agricultural livelihoods. But while they are assuming more responsibility than men, their voices are mostly excluded from the policy-making processes that affect their daily lives.
Lessons from an integrated systems research program in Central Mekong
A new book offers insights and recommendations to support researchers targeting smallholder farmers with integrated agricultural systems innovations. Innovations for agricultural intensification—for instance adding fruit trees to farms and intercropping—can sustainably increase smallholder farmers’ production. But for greater...
ICRAF and One Acre Fund chart ways forward on trees
Rubengera, Rwanda — Farmer Cecile Mukabutera , 32, looks approvingly at her small tree, one of ten she received from One Acre Fund. Its branches will eventually give her up to 30 poles per year. These 2-3 meter...
Engaging marginalized groups in the Greater Mekong region through action research
A new publication offers researchers guidelines on how best to engage with marginalized, ethnic-minority farming communities in the Greater Mekong region, so that research innovations reach and benefit their lives and livelihoods. Titled “Guidelines to engage with marginalized...
Promoting early-maturing, oil-rich shea trees and holding off the charcoal threat
In Europe and the US, shea butter or oil is a famous skin cream. But shea is even more important as the main cooking oil for the band of 21 African countries that stretches West to East from...
While raising crop yields, African thorn tree Faidherbia albida captures large amounts of carbon
A large, old Faidherbia albida tree with a metre-plus diameter stored the equivalent of the CO2 emitted by 8 cars over one year. These useful trees play an important role in carbon sequestration, a critical part of the...
Agroforestry leads as investors and governments support land restoration in Latin America
The global land restoration movement launched in Bonn five years ago is gaining steam. It’s big and it’s ambitious. In Latin America and the Caribbean, where it is called Initiative 20X20, it aims to bring 20 million hectares...
For more and better-quality food production, take care of pollinators
The evidence is clear: For big gains in crop production, our landscapes must become more hospitable to some of the planet’s littlest creatures— its pollinators. Bees, birds, butterflies, moths and some small mammals transfer pollen from flower to...