Project description
Growing farming practices in East Africa
To help smallholder farmers in East Africa, experts from around the world will come together to provide a novel agroecology indicator set. They will go beyond the existing indicator frameworks by supporting the selection of the best-suited combination of agroecological farming practices. Working under the EU-funded PrAEctiCe project, they will focus on circular water-energy-nutrient systems of integrated aqua-agriculture. Taking a multi-stakeholder approach, the project will shed light on agroecological practices in East Africa. The findings will build on existing frameworks and help farmers assess environmental and socio-economic impacts. Trainings, student exchanges and events will also be organised by the project to ensure the dissemination of results across East Africa and between the African Union and the European Union.
Objective
PrAEctiCe will provide a novel agro-ecology indicator set for East Africa, aimed at helping smallholder farmers in their agro-ecological transition. The project goes beyond the existing indicator frameworks by putting the “concept into action” with a decision support tool for agro-ecology advisors supporting the selection of the best suited combination of agro-ecological practices in a local context. In addition, it puts a focus on circular water-energy-nutrient systems of integrated aqua-agriculture, an practice with high potential for efficient farming with minimal climate impacts, which has not been sufficiently explored in previous indicator work. Through a multi-stakeholder approach, new insight on agro-ecological practices in East Africa will be gathered to inform on existing successful practices as well as the barriers and drivers of East African smallholder farmers. This insight will help develop an indicator framework for agro-ecology, which, while building on existing frameworks, is adapted to the East African context and captures integrated aqua-agriculture practices in detail. The PrAEctiCe decision support tool will then, at the farm level, help assess environmental and socio-economic impacts, with a particular focus on impacts on climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as financial viability. The tool will be validated in three living labs, situated in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, covering different integrated aqua-agriculture farming set-ups. Knowledge sharing activities through trainings, student exchanges and events, ensure the dissemination of results across East Africa and between AU and EU. To reach practitioners at every level, a cascade training mechanism with a train-the-trainer course will help agro-ecology advisors train farming representatives at the local level who then will help the farmers in their agro-ecological transition. Policy recommendations for AU and EU policies will round off the project.
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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
76133 Karlsruhe
Germany