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Agroecology Living Labs in Africa: Redefining the Role of Animals in Food Systems for Climate Action and Sustainability

Objective

Unsustainable animal farming is tightly linked to climate change, soil degradation, and ecological disruption. While livestock farming in Africa is generally less industrialized than in Europe, its environmental costs are high. As demand for animal-sourced food increases, there’s a risk of scaling up emissions if productivity is not improved sustainably.
Sustainability in livestock farming requires a fundamental transformation prioritizing efficiency, ecological integration, and circularity. The aim is redesigning farming systems to fit ecological realities & societal needs, tailored to local contexts, supported by innovation & policy.
Sustainable agroecological (AE) livestock farming, endorsing also the principles of regenerative agriculture, addresses the aforementioned issues. Such an approach holds a huge potential by aiming at restoring the ecosystem balance through the redefinition of the animals’ role in food systems. In Africa, the climate change mitigation potential of AE livestock remains poorly understood due to limited region-specific research, limited funding, and insufficient technical capacity. Living Labs (LLs) offer a promising solution: uniting farmers, scientists, and policymakers to co-develop and test adaptive livestock practices in real-world settings.
The overall objective of ALASTRA is to catalyse the transformation of the African livestock sector towards improved climate change resilience and AE food production by harnessing the potential of AE livestock management across diverse African regions, within a participatory R&I approach. To achieve this objective, ALASTRA will engage a wide range of stakeholders to co-design and implement AE pasture-based livestock systems based on regional farming realities and contexts. The co-creation processes will be done through the establishment of four LLs (Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia). The co-defined practices will be tested & demonstrated across a range of farming systems and pedoclimatic zones.

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Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-two-stage

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Coordinator

CY.R.I.C CYPRUS RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTER LTD
Net EU contribution
€ 1 423 750,00
Address
AGIAS ELENIS 6 AGIAS ELENIS BUILDING 4TH FLOOR FLAT OFFICE 43
1060 LEFKOSIA
Cyprus
SME
Yes
Region
Κύπρος Κύπρος Κύπρος
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost
No data

Participants (15)

Partners (3)