Who We Are
Excellence in Agronomy (EiA)
The Excellence in Agronomy Initiative forms a part of The CGIAR’s new research portfolio, delivering science and innovation to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.
We deliver agronomic gain for millions of smallholder farming households in prioritized farming systems, with emphasis on women and young farmers for measurable impact on food and nutrition security, income, water use, soil health and climate resilience.
What We Do
Explore the Global Agronomy Village
How We Work
Development & Delivery of Agronomy Solutions
ORGANIZE encompasses both internal structuring and external collaborations, offering valuable guidance to researchers involved in different facets of the Initiative. It is pivotal in determining which stakeholders to collaborate with, where to direct innovation efforts, and how to provide support. Additionally, it assumes responsibility for steering strategic communication efforts and orchestrating interactions with other Initiatives. The ORGANIZE team helps researchers within the Initiative to work together and with external partners. They identify who to collaborate with, what to innovate for, and how to support each other's work. They also lead strategic communication for the Initiative and manage its interactions with other Initiatives. Its scope includes:
- Crafting tools to enhance the precision of R&D initiative targeting.
- Implementing the agronomic gain Key Performance Indicator (KPI) assessment framework.
- Evaluating outcomes and impact.
- Assessing the medium to long-term effects of interventions on soil health.
- Engaging with and bolstering the capabilities of the One CGIAR agronomy community.
- Establishing a strategic communication framework to increase awareness of the Initiative's endeavors.
This work covers the co-creation, development, technical and user experience validation, and deployment of gender- and youth-responsive agronomic solutions to smallholder farmers via scaling partners through demand-driven use cases. The use cases are based on the Initiative's priority research themes:
- Sustaining soil productivity and ecosystem services
- Climate change adaptation
- Precision cropping and system management
- Perennials for livelihoods and conservation
- Agile agronomy at scale
This activity explores how standardized data and advanced analytics can be deployed towards rapid and location-specific agronomic management options and what incentives are needed to facilitate partners’ engagement with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and open data processes.
It includes the assembly of data and tools and their governance, following open and FAIR principles; development and application of analytics and turn-key solutions based on demand; and strengthening the capacity of National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS).
INNOVATE addresses critical knowledge gaps and facilitates innovation in agronomy research with engagement from public and private sector partners and non-CGIAR ARIs based on use case needs, requirements for the assessment of agronomic gain KPIs, or needs for increasing the efficiency, efficacy, gender- youth-responsiveness, and cost-effectiveness of research workflows.
This work includes activating a strategic R&D portfolio that responds to prioritized use case needs and needs identified by the Initiative and exploring "blue sky" ideas. It also involves developing the capacity of NARS scientists and facilitating communities of practice, as well as a global network for evaluating and validating agronomy innovations.
