Farming First

In United Nations News, FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero, explains how disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz are affecting fertiliser supply chains and farming decisions globally. Around 30 per cent of globally traded fertilisers pass through the Strait. With tanker traffic significantly reduced since late February, farmers from India to East Africa are now navigating rising input costs and uncertain yield outcomes that have changed considerably in a short period of time. Read the full piece 👇 https://bit.ly/3QLKCKw

Martha grows aubergines, plantains and tomatoes in Holguín Province on Cuba's eastern coastline. Like many small-scale farmers across the island, she was already contending with increasingly extreme droughts and erratic rainfall. Cuba's prolonged nationwide power outages in 2024 worsened the situation, leaving rural women unable to irrigate, store or protect their harvests without reliable electricity. The Gibara Verde X Ciento project, supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) stepped in and solar panels are now powering her farm through outages and dry seasons alike, protecting her crops, her income and her family's food security. Learn how clean energy is powering rural resilience in Cuba: https://bit.ly/3G1999h #IYWF

In parts of Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, farmers have water and infrastructure, yet they're still losing money due to a lack of irrigation knowledge and access to finance. A decade of research by Australian Aid on circular irrigation systems has revealed it’s less about irrigation infrastructure and more to do with governance. Poor alignment with farmers' crop needs and donor priorities results in a large volume of plots unused. This is not an unusual story. But it is a solvable one. Read what actually makes smallholder irrigation work on Farming First: https://bit.ly/4k5vEZq André F. van Rooyen | Henning Bjornlund

Makoza Tembo, a tomato farmer, has worked the same land in Chongwe District, Zambia, for more than two decades. For most of that time, empty pesticide containers were an environmental hazard with no proper system to collect or dispose of them safely. In 2024, an initiative by CropLife Africa Middle East processed more than 10 tonnes of plastic waste, turning agricultural liability into a reusable resource. In a new piece on Farming First, Fasil Tadesse explains how responsible container management can protect farmers, communities and ecosystems and what it takes to scale efforts across Africa: https://bit.ly/4uiSbHq

The answer is… fewer than 20! Of more than 200,000 plant species fit for human consumption, our global food system depends on fewer than 20 to provide 90% of what we eat. On Farming First Shamba Centre for Food & Climate’s Isik Ozturk explains why the narrowing of our food base isn't just a nutrition concern — it's a threat to the very ecosystems that keep our crops productive. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3E4Ujxs

📣 Last call to apply for the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) Women in Agriculture Leadership Program Fellowship! Women scientists are driving the solutions to Africa's greatest agricultural challenges. This Fellowship gives them the tools, networks, and platform to go further. Open to women researchers from 🇪🇬 Egypt, 🇬🇭 Ghana, 🇲🇦 Morocco, 🇳🇬 Nigeria, 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone & 🇸🇳 Senegal. Applications are welcome in English and French. Applications close Sunday, 26 April 2026 at 23:59 EAT. Apply now 👉 bit.ly/AfricanWomenAgLead #ClimateResponsive #WomanInAg #AWARDFellowship

“Food systems leadership isn’t about titles or personal power. It’s about leaders in the ecosystem working across boundaries to coalesce around a common agenda” say AGRA's President Alice Ruhweza, AKADEMIYA2063's Debisi Araba and African Food Fellowship's Pascal Murasira in a new piece on Farming First. They argue that the reason the continent's ambitious strategies stall at the point of execution comes down to one thing: too few leaders are able to work across boundaries and align around a common agenda. The evidence that stronger food systems leadership translates directly into better outcomes on the ground already exists. The Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA) is one of the programmes helping to change that. Through building cross-sector collaborations that equip leaders to move beyond their own mandate and drive collective action. 🇹🇿 In Tanzania for example, a  CALA-supported intervention reduced poultry mortality from 55% to just 3%. Not through new technology, but by bringing fragmented producers, input suppliers and extension actors into a coordinated model that finally aligned their incentives. Read the full piece to see how the same approach unlocked Africa's first dedicated aquaculture credit product in Kenya on Farming First: https://bit.ly/3QEJB74

Conversations about agricultural innovation often centre on new seeds, AI tools and lab-driven technologies. But Chilufya Chileshe of SDG2 Advocacy Hub brings something different to that conversation — the experience of running her father's smallholder livestock farm in Zambia. Every decision about feed costs, market prices and seasonal planning sharpened her understanding of what farmers really need from policy. Chileshe's conclusions? The innovations to end hunger are more accessible than we think. Her 5 recommendations for agricultural policies in alignment with farmers: https://bit.ly/47SX9B2

Nutrition and profitability can coexist, argues TechnoServe's Senior Director  Dominic Schofield in a new piece on Farming First. This requires the right incentives. ✅ For example, turning fortification into a measurable, publicly ranked performance metric can give food manufacturers a reason to compete on quality. Kenya and Nigeria are already proving it works through the Micronutrient Fortification Index, where greater transparency is translating into better nutrition outcomes for consumers and profits for businesses. Read the full piece here: https://bit.ly/41SwnpM

Livestock and dairy account for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But the same sector holds some of the most practical, farmer-led solutions to cut them. In Ethiopia, 6,284 pastoralists joined village savings groups, gaining their first-ever livestock insurance and generating a return on investment five times the cost of setting them up. This is one of dozens of on-the-ground climate-smart practices brought together in a new World Farmers' Organisation publication, spanning farmers across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas. Farmers globally are solving similar problems in different ways. Sharing those solutions is one of the fastest routes to change. Read the full publication 👇 https://bit.ly/489dB0W Nestlé 📸 : International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)