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Potato plays an important role in Kenya's food and nutrition security plan - part of the Big Four Economic Development Strategy. The crop is cultivated by approximately 800,000 smallholder farmers and a few medium and large-scale farmers. The sector employs another 2.5 million people - transporters, distributors, processors, vendors, retailers, and exporters - who derive their livelihoods along the value chain. Production has fluctuated over the last decade, despite a steady increase in area from 122,542 to 212,976 ha from 2010 to 2019, with productivity steadily declining from 22 t/ha in 2010 to less than 10 t/ha in 2019, representing a loss of 2.7 million tonnes of food, or an additional 100,000 ha needed to meet the same production as 2010. The opportunities for unit-area yield gains in potato outcompete other crops, making potato a strong option for addressing food, economic and nutrition security in Kenya. To address losses in productivity and fragmented value chains, Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) supported the development of a private sector-led value chain, integrating county governments in leading/supporting interventions to disseminate productivity-enhancing technologies, strengthen seed systems and develop farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to improve equality and opportunity in the value chain. In AVCD phase 1 (2015–2018), the potato value chain (PVC) covered the counties of Elgeyo-Marakwet (EMC), Meru, Nandi, and Uasin Gishu (UGC), while Phase 2 (2019– 2021) was in Bungoma and Taita Taveta. The depth and breadth of the AVCD potato component reached and benefited thousands of smallholder farmers. Over six years, 74,690 smallholder farmers were reached with AVCD agricultural and nutrition-related interventions, of whom 72,260 applied productivity-enhancing technologies following season-long practical training on learning farms hosted by farmer groups and led by government extension workers. As a result of increasing production and productivity, farmers collectively generated 33,977,789 USD in value of sales from potato: 27.6M USD in phase 1 and 6.3M USD in phase 2. This represents an increase in the value of sales generated per farmer per hectare of 1,348 to 2,367 USD and 481 to 1,322 USD in phases 1 and 2, respectively. This further represents project-direct return on investment of 1 to 9.79 USD on the 3.47M USD USAID investment in the potato value chain. The return is expected to be notably higher when taking into account the value of sales generated in phase 1 counties since the project ended there in 2018. This increase in value of sales was also accompanied by increases in gross margin in phase 1 from a baseline 721 USD/ha to 1,680 USD/ha, demonstrating that the increase was not solely due to increases in production costs but also to increases in farmer profits. In phase 2 (exclusive of the extension component) farmer yields increased by 49% from 7.7 to 11.5 t/ha which, over a final area of 6,096 ha of 17,779 smallholder farmers, represented an additional 23,165 tonnes of food produced over two cropping seasons compared to baseline yields, and which contributed to greater sales of potato. Table I summarizes the main achievements of the potato component of AVCD.

The Biodiverse and Nutritious Potato Improvement across Peru, Nepal, and Bhutan project addressed climate change, food security, nutrition, and the sustainable use of biodiversity in vulnerable mountainous regions. Potato is a major staple across the Peruvian Andes and the high Himalayas-Hindu Kush regions of Nepal and Bhutan. There, climate change has the potential to increase temperatures and evapotranspiration rates, accelerate glacial melting, and diminish water resources. Extreme weather events and shifts in pest and disease pressure are anticipated to negatively affect crop production and food security. To face these harsh and changing conditions, farmers need to be equipped with adapted varieties and the knowledge and capacity to grow them. More than half of the highland population of children in Nepal, Bhutan, and Peru suffer from iron (Fe) deficiency, so there is also the need for more nutritious staple crop varieties in these areas. This highlights the importance of biofortification as a viable food-based strategy for reducing malnutrition levels of affected populations. ; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ; European Union

The value chain school (VCS) is a participatory action learning process that involves farmer groups participating in agricultural value chains. As part of capacity strengthening, VCS comprises a series of group‐based experiential learning activities over a production‐marketing cycle while interacting with other chain actors and stakeholders. As a tangible outcome of VCS, the farmer‐participants are expected to have initiated or strengthened a business upon completing the VCS learning process. VCS aspires to more profitable pro‐poor farm business through market‐oriented innovations that enhance trust, coordination, and collaboration between farmers and other chain actors while empowering men and women farmers, thus ultimately contributing to sustainable livelihoods of targeted farming households. ; World Bank ; Government of Assam, India

This book features a collection of stories of 24 women and men who participated in Farmer Business Schools in the Philippines and India, and of project staff of partner organizations who have facilitated the process. Since innovations are inherently linked to change in practices and lives, the stories were collected using the 'most significant change' (MSC) approach as a technique for capturing project outcomes. MSC is a qualitative evaluation tool based on community members' response to a simple question: What do you think was the most significant change in your life brought about by this initiative? This encourages community members to tell the story of how their lives are now different and what part of that difference they value the most. ; International Fund for Agricultural Development ; European Union

This book presents the Most Significant Change story (MSC) in the Agriculture, agribusiness, and income generating activities (AAIGA) component of CHARMP2 (second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project); as well as the selected stories from the provinces. The second part of this book includes an MSC process review, learnings, and recommendations. ; International Fund for Agricultural Development ; European Union ; Peer Review

This situation analysis report provides a snapshot of the regional and subregional policies and frameworks that support biofortification and the organizations implementing various nutritionsensitive initiatives. The report identifies some ongoing initiatives that are relevant to the Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) Project mandate and that can be aligned to its activities to facilitate its starting up and scaling up. The report recommends the key actions necessary to facilitate increased investment in and scaling up of biofortified crops in sub-Saharan Africa. It also provides guidance on the broad strategic areas that could form the focus in the development of a regional advocacy strategy for the BNFB Project, and serve as the basis of a plan of work for biofortification advocacy champions for stimulating sustainable investments in the production and consumption of biofortified crops. ; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The inception workshop on "Transforming the Rules of the Game: Gendered Liveability in Peri-urban Dhaka" was held on 20 December 2021 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to introduce the key partners to this project, and to share ideas, knowledge, and experiences that could helpfully inform the execution of the research. Thirty-three people (50% women) participated in this workshop, including government officers, local and international NGO representatives, university staff and private sector employees from the garment industry. Collectively, this group represented expertise in many subjects such as nutrition, food systems, environment, and urban development. The participants shared some practical approaches towards improving the living environment and food/water/nutrition for poor residents in urban areas. This workshop highlighted the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration with diverse institutions to understand the government's priorities and interests. This report outlines key points and messages including feedback from project partners. The links to key documents are also included in this report.

The learning visit aimed to meet and learn from the government officials in Bangladesh and India who have been advocating the better utilization of regional cooperation in seed sector to strengthen food and nutrition security in the South and Southeast Asian Regions.

This paper was prepared for consideration by the 2nd meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, Rome, Italy, February 2020. It includes proposals for how access and benefit-sharing rules, practices and impacts could be integrated in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (Post 2020 Framework).