The irrigated and improved lowland agricultural systems are not resulting in the expected increase in resilience and food security for smallholders nor in the leading motor for economic growth in West Africa. The potential benefits of water-managed agricultural systems are enormous in West Africa: it increases cropping intensity, diversity and productivity; contributes to develop food markets and agro-industry, and generates employment; conversely, it has environmental and social implications. The project proposes a multi-scale multi-actor and multi-discipline approach for the sustainable intensification of a new, dynamic, inclusive, market-oriented agriculture and technology-based agriculture.
WAGRINNOVA aspires to change the development paradigm of water-managed agricultural systems and suggests that sustainable intensification is not achieved through stand-alone technology, but by combining technologies and governance to co-design productions systems that are best adapted to local conditions.
WAGRINNOVA envisions sustainable intensification as the springboard that will transform irrigation and lowland communities into resilient, food-secure communities, improving their well-being through economic growth.
The project is funded by LEAP-Agri, a joint EU-Africa research and innovation initiative related to food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture, and the French National Agency for Research and the French Development Agency (ANR and AFD, France), The Dutch Research Council (NOW, The Netherlands), The Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (CSIR-STEPRI, Ghana), the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM/IAMB, Italy) and The Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation (MINECO, Spain)