🍎Agriculture in Action: SAN Members Driving Change – August 1–8, 2025

Over the past week, SAN members have shared insights, achievements, and calls to action that demonstrate the strength of our global impact network. From pest management innovations to women’s empowerment in agribusiness, these updates illustrate how local leadership fuels global transformation.

In the area of climate-smart agriculture and innovation, CABI highlighted regenerative agriculture as an active process of healing the land through practices that restore soil health, capture carbon, and build resilient farming systems. They also reported on the UK-CGIAR Centre’s mapping of UK-based organisations applying artificial intelligence for trait selection, with a focus on multiplex gene editing. CORAF presented seven agroecological innovations at JERSIC 2025 in Cameroon and highlighted the RADiUS project’s capacity to advance agroecology in West and Central Africa.

On biodiversity and ecosystem protection, Fundatia Adept promoted FarmBioNet, a European network launched in early 2025 to support biodiversity-friendly farming across the continent, and in which they participate in pursuit of knowledge exchange, learning and co-creation. The Rainforest Alliance encouraged consumers to choose certified bananas as a way to protect biodiversity, safeguard nature, and ensure worker safety on banana farms.

Sustainable value chains and supply chain transparency were a focus for Cotton Connect, which showcased its TraceBale digital traceability platform that integrates digital records, physical chain-of-custody systems, and tracer-based verification to follow a product’s journey from farm group to garment. In a detailed interview, they also discussed sustainable supply chains, regenerative agriculture, and farmer training. Fundación Pachamama shared an example of Amazonian bioeconomy in action by training for better production of morete and vanilla bean products that combine value creation with sustainability.

30 participants were trained in the Vainilla Labs, in collaboration with GIZ Ecuador.

Pest and disease management received attention from CABI, which warned that scale insects can cause up to 91 percent crop loss if not detected early and stressed the importance of wearing personal protective equipment when spraying or handling pesticides. Cotton Connect complemented this message by promoting smart pest management practices to support healthier cotton production.

In collaboration between CABI and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service - Kephis parataxonomists from Uganda and Burundi have been trained to better detect and manage these pests, now posing a serious threat to export crops like avocado, mango, citrus, papaya, and pineapple.

Community empowerment and advocacy advanced through CORAF’s role in launching the AGRA-led VALUE4HER platform in Senegal, an initiative designed to give women in agribusiness equitable access to technologies and innovations tailored to their needs.

Senegal hosted the launch of the pan-African platform Value4Her last week, highlighting the role of women in agrobussiness.

In research and knowledge sharing, RAAA Perú invited the public to attend the digital presentation of the findings of a recent study mapping farmers markets and healthy food fairs in Peru. If you want to discover more about it, join them on August 13.

These updates reflect SAN members’ diverse contributions to climate-smart agriculture, biodiversity protection, community empowerment, and sustainable value chains. We keep collaborating towards a healthy planet, and we are proud to share our collective achievement. Until next week!