Funded Projects

PhD scholars 2026

Ilein Milena de Haan

CIFOR-ICRAF/World Fish, Vincent Gitz/Jorn Schmidt & Humboldt University of Berlin, Stefan Sieber

Climate change and anthropogenic pressures are transforming riverine forest landscapes, threatening biodiversity and food security, yet these interactions remain insufficiently understood. This project investigates the socio-ecological interactions between riverine communities and their natural environment in a single watershed of the Peruvian Amazon Basin, focusing on two fundamental subsistence resources: forest foods (plants, trees, shrubs, and wild fruits) and aquatic foods (fish species). Despite growing recognition of the nutritional and ecological importance of natural resources for riverine livelihoods, a critical gap exists in integrated, watershed-scale research simultaneously examining ecological consequences of resource extraction and nutritional outcomes for communities. This project will generate scientific evidence to inform sustainable natural resource management, community food security, and conservation strategies in the Peruvian Amazon.

Lukas Waldmann

IRRI, Rica Joy Flor & University of Hohenheim, Christine Wieck

I will be working on farm economics and mechanisation in smallholder rice systems in Cambodia, in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the University of Hohenheim, and Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf. Using a data-powered positive deviance approach, I will analyse high-performing farms to better understand the economic drivers of success and inform viable, evidence-based development pathways.

Paschal Chukwunonso Adikaibe

CIFOR-ICRAF, Kai Mausch/Tesfaye Woldeyohanes & University of Hannover, Ulrike Grote

Topic: Determinants and Impacts of Adoption and Value Chain Constraints of Agroforestry-Based Land Restoration among Smallholder Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa

The study investigates the adoption and impact of agroforestry-based land restoration practices among smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria. It analyses the socioeconomic, institutional, and environmental factors influencing adoption, while also examining how value chain dynamics, such as access to tree seed systems, markets, and collective action, affect long-term sustainability.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the study assesses both the direct and indirect impacts of agroforestry on livelihoods and environmental outcomes, with particular attention to gender and youth inclusion. It identifies key adoption drivers, impact pathways, and value chain bottlenecks. The project provides practical insights to guide policy, strengthen agroforestry systems, and scale sustainable land restoration initiatives across the region.

Paulina Smith Ruiz

IFPRI, Berber Kramer & University of Bonn, Matin Qaim

Smallholder farmers in the Global South, particularly women, face increasing risks from climate change and weather shocks. Limited access to inclusive and affordable financial services constrains their ability to invest in agricultural practices and technologies (CSA) that reduce climate risks. The CGIAR has developed an innovative digital financial service that offers new opportunities, but its impacts on sustained CSA adoption remain unclear as the service scales. This PhD investigates climate information and agronomic advisories as complementary services that might strengthen these scaling impacts. Embedded in a large-scale CGIAR evaluation in Kenya, the research will generate evidence on how financial and information constraints interact to shape resilience and women’s empowerment. Findings will inform future projects and partnerships, offering new insights for sustainable agriculture under climate uncertainty.

Prince Asiedu

IITA, Bekele Hundie Kotu & University of Passau, Martina Padmanabhan

Topic: Entanglements of Inequality in Agroecological Transitions: Casting a Socio-Ecological Intersectionality Lens on Smallholder Farmers’ Everyday Negotiations.

Summary:

Can smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana (women in polygamous households, widows, landless and migrants, masculine stereotypes, ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, and women living under stigma in places like the Gambaga witches’ camp) boost crop yields and sustain their livelihoods without increased use of mineral fertilizer? This question lies at the heart of ongoing debates among civil society, policymakers, and agroecology advocates. Proponents of the “input reduction” principle argue that biodiversity, recycling, and efficiency gains from legumes, manure, and soil-building practices can substitute for mineral fertilizers. Yet decades of research across sub-Saharan Africa show that many farmers already operate in conditions of chronic nutrient depletion within “naturalized agroecology settings,"" where agroecology alone, without complementary nutrient inputs, struggles to offset long-term soil mining, hence a wider yield gap and welfare precarities. If more fertilizer and inorganic inputs are needed, who is positioned to access them? If agroecological practices hold promise, who can adopt and benefit from them? This thesis adopts a socio-ecological intersectionality lens to explore how and why overlapping modes of social (in)justice and ecological conditions augment farmers’ vulnerability and shape their (non)adaptive responses during agroecological transitions. Through a mixed-methods design, the study will trace the interlocking and underlying social-ecological power dynamics between human and non-human elements across micro (household relations, bodily capacities, labor struggles), meso (customary tenure systems, community norms, networks, local ecologies), and macro (policies, markets, intervention logics) levels. This framing brings into view the pathways that avoid the traps of essentialization, enabling solidarity and agency across and beyond social categories, as it is expected to reveal how human and natural-world elements intra act to co-constitute gendered actions/vulnerabilities in transition pathways.

Silvia Martinez

Alliance Bioversity and CIAT, Céline Termote & University of Giessen, Gudrun Keding

The research investigates how Neglected and Underutilised Species (NUS) can be integrated into school meal programmes in Kenya. Using multi-objective modelling the project links farm-level production with school menus to optimise productivity, income, nutrition, labour, and environmental outcomes. The goal is to advance evidence-based strategies for more diversified and resilient school feeding programmes.

Tigist Worku

ILRI, Birgit Habermann & University of Hohenheim, Verena Seufert

Project Summary

Tigist’s research focuses on how pastoral communities in Afar and South Omo, Ethiopia, develop and share locally successful practices in the face of climate and livelihood challenges. Her work is grounded in the concept of positive deviance, looking at why some households achieve better outcomes despite having the same constraints as others.

She explores how social norms, gender roles, and intergenerational learning shape the way knowledge is created and shared within communities. Using participatory and qualitative approaches, Tigist works closely with pastoralists to understand these everyday practices and the conditions that allow them to spread.

By highlighting solutions that already exist within communities, her research aims to support more inclusive, locally led approaches to adaptation and strengthen resilience in pastoral systems.

coming soon

Vrindaja Vikram

IFPRI, Thomas Falk & University of Hohenheim, Regina Birner

I am a PhD scholar at the University of Hohenheim, working with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on women’s leadership in natural resource governance in rural India, with fieldwork in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Karnataka.

My research looks at how rural women become leaders in managing shared resources (commons) such as water, forests, and grazing lands, and what kinds of support can help strengthen their leadership. Using a mixed-methods approach, I combine interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, participatory tools such as Process Net-Mapping and Social Presencing Theatre, and selected AI-supported analysis with human validation. The goal of my project is to generate practical evidence that can help researchers, development programs, and policymakers support more inclusive and sustainable resource governance.