The central aim of SustInAfrica is to develop and implement systems of agriculture in North and West Africa that are both intensive and sustainable. A summary of project progress can be seen in the following paragraphs.
Baseline data is vital to SustInAfrica’s strategy. These data give information on the conditions and practices in the communities studied prior to SustInAfrica’s interventions. These data have now been collected and fully analysed and are available for project internal use on the project partner Farmerline’s Mergedata platform. Baseline data were used to in the selection and planning of the demonstration trials.
Central to SustInAfrica’s work are farming (demonstration) trials. This work is spread over five African countries and is summarised as follows.
• In Egypt, at El-Behira (cotton) comparing organic and non-organic production and Belbies (olive) trials using intercropping (with clover, faba bean, onion, sorghum, cowpea and elephant grass) are being implemented.
• In Tunisia site-specific farming practices and systems were tested, including no-tillage, cover cropping, and compost. Leaf chlorophyll nitrogen, and agronomic data were collected and analysed.
• In Burkina Faso, maize is being cultivated at Satiri. Trials are being undertaken using biochar and various compost combinations. Yield data collected from the trials has been analyzed and recorded.
• In Niger, the trials focus on assessing the agronomic performance of improved millet varieties compared with local varieties. At the Tillaberi site, the trials focused on assessing of damage caused by the fall armyworm to rainfed crops to develop strategies for the sustainable pest management.
• In Ghana, farming trials are established in all areas with a variety intercropping strategies and soil amendments.
Insect trapping and identification for pest management and eco-system services is ongoing at all locations.
Introducing and testing smart farming technologies is key to the aims of SustInAfrica and consists of three major elements. (1) A set of smart farming tools and solutions for small-holder farmers in Africa has been designed and tested. These tools include ground-based measuring technologies, such as GPS; near ground technologies, such as UAVs; and satellite based remote sensing data. (2) A smart AI-based tool for insect identification has been developed and tested and is now available as an android app (
3(opens in new window) A low-cost monitoring toolbox has been developed and tested, to farmers access to provide to plan and monitor crops (an online GIS system, UAV based pant parameter models, targeted satellite data giving plant coverage and status and a future drought risk prediction model.
Training and education are an important element of SustInAfrica and will help to ensure the projects legacy. Our training concept is in place and being implemented. In each country, three training rounds have taken place. (1) The focus of this training activity was to familiarize partners in the use of smart tools for farming and monitoring. (2) How to conduct and record agricultural experiments and raise awareness of sustainable and ecological farming practices. (3) Implementing the SustInAfrica drama pedagogy concept. The topics covered in these training sessions included the impact of climate change on agri-business, the role of women in agriculture and sustainable agricultural practices and the target audience was farmers and agri-food service providers.
The final strand of the SustInAfrica project focusses on sustainability, replicability and exploitation. Agri-food systems in the selected West and North African communities have now been analysed and described. A replicability assessment has been completed, evaluating how SustInAfrica agricultural practices can be scaled and replicated in similar regions. SustInAfrica has also engaged key researchers to verify collected data and conduct the technology scoring exercise.
