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Which agroecological approaches reconcile agricultural productivity, food security and ecosystem preservation in sub-Saharan Africa?

The transition to sustainable food systems is crucial to ensure global food security, mitigate climate change and reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. In sub-Saharan Africa, where much of the population depends on agroforestry for their livelihoods, agricultural productivity remains low and climate change is exacerbating food insecurity. Extreme weather events, prolonged dry seasons and environmental degradation are driving migration and expansion into marginal lands, further threatening forests and ecosystems. There is an urgent need for sustainable agroforestry management solutions to support food security, protect natural resources and ensure long-term resilience.

Living labs to test and assess agroforestry innovations

The GALILEO project builds on eight agroforestry living labs, four national innovation platforms and one regional platform, set up in four sub-Saharan African countries. These living labs are located in the semi-arid zones of Senegal and Kenya, and in the normally humid but drought-prone regions of Ghana and Cameroon.

Within these living labs, ex-ante adaptation scenarios are co-constructed with innovative stakeholders. The goal is to implement, assess and compare performances on pilot plots throughout the project duration. Field observations will be used to calibrate models.

Ther are three implementation phases:

• The first year of the GALILEO project will be entirely dedicated to discussions between the living labs, involving hundreds of stakeholders. The aim will be to understand their expectations and ideas in order to develop promising ex-ante scenarios.
• The project will then engage three identified stakeholder categories: stakeholders already innovating prior to the project; stakeholders in transition (willing to alter their systems during the project); and control stakeholders (who choose to maintain their original systems). Scenario performances will be compared over the course of the project using multi-criteria approaches, and ex-post scenarios will be co-constructed after fine tuning.
• The results of the researchers’ analyses will then be communicated and used, but also made freely accessible in line with an open, transparent dissemination strategy.

Measuring the impact of sustainable agroforestry practices at different scales

The expected results of this project are:

• engaging local, national and regional multi-stakeholder communities in co-creating and implementing sustainable agroforestry management solutions for climate- and drought-resilient agro-sylvo-pastoral systems (ASPS);
• testing, demonstrating and building capacities in innovative ASPS management practices and assessing the effects in terms of generating and diversifying sustainable incomes in various contexts across sub-Saharan Africa;
• assessing the potential of ASPS management for climate change adaptation, mitigation and biodiversity enhancement, and providing qualitative and quantitative open data;
• assessing ASPS under various climate change scenarios and applying a multi-criteria, multi-scale evaluation to co-select ASPS ex post;
• strengthening the agroforestry innovation ecosystem in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond, drawing on knowledge exchange, policy dialogues and coordination with key networks for dissemination, exploitation and replication.