WORK PACKAGE 5

Sustainable Intensification Indicator

Objective

The main objective of this work package is to identify innovative practices, oriented to the sustainable intensification (SI) of representative farming systems in different agro-climatic areas of East and West Africa. This will be achieved through the development of an operational SI indicator-based framework relying on already proposed frameworks but implemented and improved throughout the project with the integration of expert and lay knowledge, in-field measurements, and modeling approaches.

Partners

Partners involved: UNISS, ACRA, IRD, UNB, INERA, UNIMAK, CSIR-SARI, KDC, KALRO, UoN, NM-AIST, TARI, HU, JU, ICRAF

WP Leader: UNISS

WP Co-Leader: University of Cranfield

TASKS

5.1

Identification of sustainable intensification indicators

A preliminary list of indicators at different scales and for different domains will be identified at the early stages of the project through a desk study and mobilizing the expert knowledge of the project partners. The preliminary list of indicators will be revised throughout the project duration through an iterative process that will involve all the other WPs

5.2

Development of a composite indicator of sustainable intensification

In this Task, the SI indicators will be aggregated following the procedure proposed by Metzger et al. in 2006 for assessing the vulnerability of ecosystem services to land use change. This procedure aims to aggregate a list of indicators into several aggregation levels (determinants and components) up to a unique indicator through a fuzzy logic approach

Results achieved

Find out more about the activites carried out and the results achieved within WP5 by clicking on the icon below

Final Video

"Boosting the Economic Value Chain and Sustainable Intensification Indicators"

Activities carried out

Within WP5, a composite Sustainable Intensification (SI) indicator was developed using a fuzzy logic–based approach, enabling the integration of multiple indicators across five sustainability domains—productive, environmental, economic, social, and human. This method accounts for uncertainty and allows for context-specific weighting of each indicator.

The results show an overall strong performance of the analyzed technologies across all five SI domains, while emphasizing the need for context-specific solutions. As practices and technologies are adapted to local conditions, cross-country comparisons are not applicable.

Neglected and Underutilized Crop Species (NUS)

Neglected and Underutilized Species: Intercropping of fonio (NUS) with cowpea in Burkina Faso

Neglected and Underutilized Species: Intercropping of fonio (NUS) with cowpea in Burkina Faso

Organic fertilizer

Organic fertilization: the use of combined organic and inorganic fertilizers (high intensification level) and the use of only organic fertilizers (low intensification level) for sorghum in Burkina Faso.

Organic fertilization: the use of combined organic and inorganic fertilizers (high intensification level) and the use of only organic fertilizers (low intensification level) for maize in Ghana.

Organic fertilization: the use of combined organic and inorganic fertilizers (high intensification level) and the use of only organic fertilizers (low intensification level) for maize in Kenya.

Organic fertilization: the use of combined organic and inorganic fertilizers (high intensification level) and the use of only organic fertilizers (low intensification level) for maize in Sierra Leone.

Organic fertilization: the use of combined organic and inorganic fertilizers (high intensification level) and the use of only organic fertilizers (low intensification level) for common bean in Tanzania.