23 September 2015
WYG and Natural Resources Institute (NRI) are pleased to announce a forthcoming research opportunity which will be available in October and will be calling for concept notes in response to research questions for Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning Programme in sub-Saharan Africa (SAIRLA).
The selected concept notes will be required to submit full proposals. Full details of the research call will be published on the SAIRLA website during October and the deadline for submission of proposals will follow approximately one month later.
What is SAIRLA?
Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa (SAIRLA) is a five-year programme, running from 2015 to 2020, which will commission research and facilitate learning to understand different ways of achieving Sustainable Agricultural Intensification (SAI) and their developmental implications. SAIRLA has a key focus on assessing how SAI can be promoted in ways that enable women and poorer smallholders in Africa to participate in and benefit from agricultural development through SAI approaches.
Research questions
1. How can equity issues be best addressed in Sustainable Intensification approaches and policies, in particular to ensure that the needs and interests of poorer smallholders, especially youth and women, are properly addressed?
2. What are the policy processes, and how can tools and metrics help decision-makers create an enabling environment for resource-poor smallholders, especially women and youth, to sustainably intensify agricultural enterprises?.
3. How can the trade-offs between increased production and environmental impact be analysed and managed across all scales?
4. What are the key risk factors for smallholders in participating in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification, and what risk management strategies can be put in place to manage them?
5. What are effective and efficient strategies to improve access and capacity to use market, technical and other information by resource-poor farmers, especially women and youth, to achieve sustainable intensification?
6. How do subsistence farmers manage the trade-offs between production, sustainability, and other socioeconomic and environmental factors?
More details, and instructions for those submitting concept papers, will be posted when the call is officially open.
Please share this announcement with colleagues, friends and members of your professional network as well as via social media channels – Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook using the #SAIRLA.
