AR-SAIRLA ‘project’

The Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa (SAIRLA) project

Introduction

The Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa (SAIRLA) project is a five-year programme (2015 to 2020) funded by the UK Department of International Development . The project seeks to generate new evidence and design tools to enable governments, investors and other key actors to deliver more effective policies and investments in sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) that strengthen the capacity of poorer farmers’, especially women and youth, to access and benefit from SAI.

SAIRLA facilitate the development of a multi-stakeholder social learning platform called the SAIRLA Learning Alliance. National Learning Alliances are being developed in project countries with the aim to co-generate, share and facilitate use of knowledge between researchers and decision makers together with other stakeholders interested in enabling socially and environmentally sustainable agricultural intensification

Why SAI matters

To meet the global challenge of food security and in particular to support sub-Saharan Africa’s growing population with sufficient and nutritional food, agricultural production must increase. Different approaches and methods for increasing production also need to be assessed in terms of how far they can reduce environmental impacts, given the major environmental challenges for global agriculture, such as climate change, conserving biodiversity etc. At the same time there are pressing social challenges which include the persistence of chronic poverty for many communities and rising inequality globally. Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) seeks to address these challenges by increasing agricultural productivity while maintaining or improving environmental and social sustainability.

SAIRLA’s research projects will generate new evidence and decision-making support tools to help governments, policy-makers, investors and other key actors create an enabling environment for women and poorer smallholder farmers to engage in sustainable agricultural intensification. SAIRLA will facilitate the development of multi-stakeholder learning platforms – the SAIRLA Learning Alliance - in each of the target countries and between those countries and international stakeholders to co-generate, share and facilitate use of knowledge by decision makers.

Social Learning

Complex challenges such as developing equitable sustainable intensification in Africa need responses which take into account knowledge being incomplete, sources of uncertainty and also diverse values and interests. Multi-stakeholder, social learning processes can enable different perspectives to be shared and discussed, scenarios and options to be assessed, decisions taken,commitment and capacity to be built and actions implemented. SAIRLA will facilitate the development of a multistakeholder social learning platform called the SAIRLA Learning Alliance. National Learning Alliances are being developed by facilitation teams in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Zambia. An International Learning Alliance between the national alliances and international researchers and other stakeholders will be formed late 2016. These linked platforms aim to co-generate, share and facilitate use of knowledge between researchers and decision makers together with other stakeholders interested in enabling socially and environmentally sustainable agricultural intensification.