Horizon Europe

The HORIZON EUROPE – WORK PROGRAMME 2021-2022 ON FOOD, BIOECONOMY, NATURAL RESOURCES, AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT   foresees a research and innovation action in Africa:

Agroecological approaches in African agriculture systems (MEUR 28)

The implementation of agro-ecological approaches will alleviate the pressure that agri-food production places on natural ecosystems, contributing to resilience of agri-food systems and facilitating nature-based responses to current and future agri-food risks and threats. Agro-ecological transitions of food systems requires strong food governance with interventions at different level (local, territorial, and value chain) and coherent public policies. This research and innovation action shall contribute to:

• Identify and evaluate the most suitable agro-ecological strategies for various farming systems in different agro-ecological zones, in Africa;
• Deliver a method to identify the best combination of agro-ecological practices for different farming systems, identifying barriers to and drivers of (socioeconomic and ecological) its wide implementation and the conditions, means and tools to support agroecological transitions at individual, territorial and systems levels, and including prospective related to access to local and international markets;
• Develop indicators to monitor and measure the qualitative and quantitative impacts of these strategies for different farming systems, the climate neutrality potential and trade-offs, nutrients flows, biodiversity and improvement of in farm socio-economic resilience;
• Support farmers, advisory services and actors in value chains in implementing agroecological practices by stablishing communities to support capacity building, knowledge exchange, and share best practices across different human communities in relation to agroecological practices that contribute to mitigating climate change and other environmental impacts;
• Identify approaches and methods to enhance the demand for food products resulting from agro-ecological practices, from local, national, regional and international markets.

Information related to the projects funded under this programme are available here.

The HORIZON EUROPE WORK PROGRAMME 2023-2024 includes additional research activities on agroecology in Africa:

HORIZON-CL6-2023-FARM2FORK-01-19: Support to the markets and trade of agroecological food products under the Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA) partnership (EU contribution: EUR 7 million).

HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01-10: EU-African Union cooperation on agroforestry management for climate change adaptation and mitigation (EU contribution: EUR 6 million).

Browse more on agroecology and research and innovation

• Explore EU Policies on "Agroecology"
• Explore EU Projects on "Agroecology"