The overall objective of this initiative is to provide documented knowledge and evidence on the diverse pathways of sustainable intensification of African agriculture and its value chains. It will cover agriculture and ecological sciences, as well as economic, social and policy sciences and will promote transdisciplinary approaches. This initiative will undertake collaborative, world-leading research with a wide range of stakeholders in Africa and Europe on the sustainable intensification of agriculture to meet major societal challenges.

1. IntensAfrica Initiative
Side event at the Fara Science Week, Accra
Tuesday, July the 16th
16h00 - 18h00
European and African farmers face a similar challenge though in different contexts: to increase
sustainably the productivity of their labour, land and capital, with natural resources getting scarcer and
energy cost higher, answering growing societal expectations and under the complicating factor of climate
change. In Europe, the pressure on the production of environmental services may be stronger; in Africa,
the need to increase the agricultural productivity and to provide rural jobs in huge numbers may be
greater; but in both continents, there is a growing recognition of the need to develop a portfolio of
diversified solutions, best adapted to diversified local contexts, backed by evidence based policies.
Agriculture represents the dominant share of African economy; with demographic and urbanization rapid
increase, agriculture and its value chains are required to grow and governments have set, through the
CAADP process, very ambitious goals for productivity increase. This intensification process could follow
very different pathways, tuned to a diversity of situations, but, in any case, the question of its
sustainability is crucial.
Research on sustainable models of intensification has grown and more generic understanding of the
functioning of such systems is being gathered, but not so much in Africa where the current status of
farming impose a particular scientific investment. Actual research capacity on these issues in Africa is
limited, and there is a strong need to invest in research programmes and capacities to develop evidence-
based approaches to agricultural innovation. Furthermore, the association with farmers and other
stakeholders is needed to build strong local innovation systems. This represents a true methodological
challenge due to the diversity of situations and the necessity to go beyond ready-to-use packages.
The overall objective of this initiative is to provide documented knowledge and evidence on the
diverse pathways of sustainable intensification of African agriculture and its value chains. It will cover
agriculture and ecological sciences, as well as economic, social and policy sciences and will promote
transdisciplinary approaches. This initiative will undertake collaborative, world-leading research with a
wide range of stakeholders in Africa and Europe on the sustainable intensification of agriculture to meet
major societal challenges.
Cirad, France, Wageningen UR, Netherlands, along with several European institutions and Fara, jointly
engage in the preparation of a new, strategic, long term and ambitious research partnership between
Europe and Africa on these questions. This side event (organized back to back with the London Imperial
College’s side event launching a new Montpellier Panel report) aims at sharing ideas about sustainable
agriculture intensification and the role of scientific partnership between Europe and Africa in this domain.

2. IntensAfrica Initiative
Side event at the Fara Science Week, Accra
Tuesday, July the 16th
16h00 - 18h00
Agenda
Chairs: Yemi Akinbamijo (Fara), Monty Jones (Fara), Martin Kropff (Wageningen UR), Michel Eddi (Cirad)
Welcoming remarks: Monty Jones
Keynote presentations
- Why IntensAfrica initiative? Martin Kropff
- The connection with the Science agenda for African agriculture Mandi Rukuni (tbc)
- Considerations on sustainability of agriculture intensification Martin Bwalya (tbc)
- The Montpellier panel’ report: “sustainable intensification” Ramadjita Tabo (tbc)
- Discussion
General debate
- The added value IntensAfrica initiative introduced by Philippe Petithuguenin
- Debate about the role of research and the relevance of a Europe-Africa scientific partnership
- Debate about how to build up and implement IntensAfrica
Synthesis and concluding remarks: Michel Eddi and Yemi Akinbamijo