The third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD3) opened on with a clarion call to translate research results into usable innovations. This way, research will better serve both African countries’ sustainable development aspirations and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Among the most pressing issues is conquering hunger and malnutrition while sustaining environmental health. The conference’s theme: ‘No One Left Behind; Agri–food Innovation and Research for a Sustainable World,’ also points to the need for inclusive development. Read more..

Even with a stable climate, forest restoration is a tricky and costly affair; the right species have to be carefully chosen, seeds or seedlings have to be procured, and these have to be planted and nurtured over long periods. If there are people in the targeted landscapes, their buy-in and cooperation is essential.

Add climate change, and this already knowledge-intensive and long-term undertaking acquires a new complexity and uncertainty.

Read more . . .

Policy makers in Africa must think globally, regionally and locally for sustainable landscape management.

Africa—a diverse, resource-rich yet food-insecure continent—urgently needs an integrated landscapes approach to policy-making in order to meet food security and development goals while protecting the natural resource base that makes it all possible. To feed and nourish the continent’s expected population of 2 billion people by 2050, Africa will need to close an 87% food production gap amid a changing climate without compromising environmental integrity.

“The landscapes approach truly mirrors the heterogeneity, complexity and dynamism of African landscapes,” said Joseph Tanui, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) researcher.Read more. . .

Active ingredients found in wild flowers, trees and bramble have been used for millennia to control pests and diseases. Different parts of the plants are processed into decoctions or applied directly to crops or livestock, protecting them from damage, disease and infestation.

A new set of information leaflets, now available for download, describes the insecticidal and medicinal activity of 9 common pesticidal plant species in the tropics and sub-tropics. These leaflets were developed by researchers from the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)’s Tree Diversity, Domestication and Delivery research program, the University of Greenwich and the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership of Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, under the auspices of the African Dryland Alliance for Pesticidal Plant Technologies (ADAPPT) network.Read more. . .

By Joseph Otim

In 1990, Uganda’s natural forests and woodlands covered an estimated 4.9 million hectares (ha), representing 24 percent of total land area, according to the country’s National Forest Plan. By 2005, this area had been reduced to just over 3.6 million ha or 18 percent of the land area — a loss of 27 percent in just 15 years.

In the face of this worrying trend, Uganda got much-needed help from passionate people like Catharine Watson, head of program development at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), to help stem the tide of forest loss in the country.Read more. . .

By Oliver Moore

Two key food events held in Dublin, Ireland, as part of the Irish EU presidency showed up the importance of agroforestry in a number of direct and indirect ways.

Agroforestry was prominently promoted at some high profile global events in April. Dr. Frank Place, Impact Assessment Advisor with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), was, along with Dr. Alexandre Meybeck of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a keynote presenter  at the Food Security Futures conference held in Dublin, Ireland in April. Theirs was one of just four keynote presentations over the two day event. At the larger Hunger, Nutrition and Climate Justice event which had Malawian farmers who practice agroforestry present, keynote presenter Al Gore made reference to the potential of agroforestry to help alleviate some of these interconnected food, climate and hunger/nutrition problems. Read more. . .

Over ten years ago when the poorest residents of Nairobi started making briquettes out of charcoal dust, they were trying to solve an immediate household problem of unaffordable fuel. Today, their work is helping overcome some of Kenya’s capital city’s most intractable headaches—poverty, unemployment, and poor waste management—and contributing to the country’s sustainable development aspirations, too.

Charcoal briquettes are made by mixing charcoal dust with water and a binding agent such as soil, paper or starch. The resultant ‘dough’ is shaped by hand, or moulded in wooden or metal presses into fist-sized units, which are then air-dried. Women and youth make up the majority of those employed in this informal industry. Read more. . .