Fostering agroecological intensification to improve farmers’ resilience in the Sahel (FAIR Sahel)

Last update: 15 March 2024

One of the nine DeSIRA projects involved in DISSEM-INN, the FAIR Sahel project focuses on agroecology.

The DeSIRA initiative
Launched at the One Planet Summit in Paris in 2017, the “Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA)” initiative is supported by European Commission’s Directorate for International Partnerships (DG INTPA). By funding more than sixty projects worldwide, this program aims to promote innovation in agriculture and transformation of partner countries’ agri-food systems to make them more resilient to the effects of climate change. Through the original concept of “action-research” for a “development smart innovation”, it seeks to promote a science in partnership that meet development challenges.

Description

The aim of the FAIR Sahel project is to develop technical systems for agroecological intensification and to create enabling conditions for their dissemination, in order to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Sahel.

The activities conducted in the project intervention zones thus enable farmers to adapt their systems through three main levers: soil fertility management, agriculture-livestock integration, and biodiversity management.

At the territorial level, FAIR Sahel accompanies institutional actors in their reflection on the conditions needed to promote agroecological intensification through the development of support services and product valorisation in value chains.

The capitalisation, communication and dissemination of the project's results through training and the development of a resource platform will contribute to advocacy on agroecological intensification at the national and sub-regional levels.

Countries concerned

Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal

Length

2020 - 2023

Actors involved

Coordinator: CIRAD (UPR Aïda)
Platform in partnership for research and training (dP): dP-ASAP, dP-DIVECOSYS, LMI IESOL
Partners: AMSP, ENDA Pronat, IRD, AVSF, INERA, ISRA, IER, UNPCB, AOPP, CSIC, ZALF, WUR (and third party beneficiaries: GRAAP Afrique, Diobass, GRET, CARI, AgriSud)
Funding: DG-INTPA/UE, AFD