Through the Sustainable Intensification (SI) approach offering practical ways to increase agricultural yield while preserving natural resources and flow of ecosystem services, EWA-BELT (GA 862848) aims at promoting food production systems in small holder farming systems in East (Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) and West ( Burkina Faso, Ghana and Sierra Leone) Africa resulting in an interregional African “belt” enhancing SI, assessing and exchanging best practices and various experiences among different contexts. Research activities on SI technologies are based on a multi stakeholder approach that foresees the direct involvement of farmers and other relevant actors at different levels along the value chain through Farmer Field Research Units.

Particularly, EWA-BELT addresses key environmental conditions and food security issues related to low crop yield, livestock feeding and welfare, soil fertility decline and erosion, land degradation and overgrazing, nutrient depletion, inadequate crop varieties adapted to changing environment, pre and post-harvest losses, over exploitation of natural resources, water quality, remote digital diagnostic of crop pests and diseases, weak market linkage, weak link between research extension and farmers and gender issues.