2015 Annual Report features several success stories of how Dryland Systems is working with communities, civil society actors and policy makers to develop innovative research-for-development interventions, and with our dedicated donors and partners, bring them to scale. Some early successes are the re-greening of silvopastoral systems, integrating small holders in agricultural value chains, gender empowerment through village-based seed enterprises in Afghanistan, the adoption in Nigeria of a policy promoting new, high yielding, heat-tolerant wheat varieties, and Index-Based Livestock Insurance in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Year 2015 saw real on-the-ground impacts in poverty reduction in drylands. For instance, through the identification of the main drivers of poverty and the adoption of more productive and profitable agricultural practices, CGIAR increased the incomes of many farming households across Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen. Market access of smallholder farmers was enhanced; In Kenya alone, 20,000 livestock owners benefited from better market infrastructure, fodder groups and women’s milk cooperatives as a result of CGIAR research.

With the international community setting out actions for implementing the new Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, agricultural research in the drylands remains critical as ever. Without it, it would be difficult to imagine how the development aspirations of millions of people in Africa, Asia and the Middle East can be realized, while solutions to global challenges, including poverty, climate change, food and water security, nutrition, land degradation would be practically impossible.” - Dr. Richard Thomas, Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems