The H2020 Soils4Africa project coordinated by ISRIC participated at the 5th AU–EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference in Rome on 30th June to present recommendations and key messages from a cluster of 5 EU-funded projects working on Sustainable intensification in Africa. The presentation was made during the thematic session “Research and Innovation for smarter policies and technologies”, chaired by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Ireland, Martin Heydon.
The messages were contained in a video jointly prepared by the cluster followed by a brief intervention by the project coordinators of Soils4Africa and UPSCALE on behalf of the cluster. Other projects in the cluster are: Ewa-Belt, SustInAfrica and SustainSahel.
Soils4Africa is developing an open access Soil Information System with a comprehensive and open database on agricultural soils, which will form an important part of the EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA). The projects UPSCALE, EWA-BELT, SustInAfrica and SustainSahel are working on “African Farming systems”.
The conference was followed by a press release, with additional information on the event and projects.
ISRIC Soils4Africa coordinator, Mary Steverink-Mosugu, at the Conference.