Agriculture in the Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly a challenging sector that’s shaped by climate change.

The main aim of the TRUSTFARM is to design integrated agro-ecosystems (incorporating livestock production into cropping systems for enhancing ecosystem services in smallholder) based on the conservation principles of using natural resources and the circular economy in order to make production systems more resilient to climate change. TRUSTFARM builds on research and stakeholders’ mobilisation in five case studies areas in France, Italy, Egypt, Morocco and Senegal and covering a diversity of natural, socio-economic and institutional contexts in the EU, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Core challenges in the case study countries will be identified by their climate impact variability on food security. In cooperation with stakeholders, TRUSTFARM will develop Multi-Stakeholder Innovation Platforms (MIPs) to prioritise and select the best-fit innovative Climate-Smart Farm Practices (CSFPs) for each case study. A toolbox of innovative pathways will be developed that contains the following:

• Identification and promotion of food crops with high yielding germplasm that are resistant to heat and disease;
• Soil and water conservation to improve productive capacity;
• Adoption of best practices in ruminant husbandry.

The project will design integrated agro-ecosystems based on the selected pathways with on-farm trials. The environmental and economic impacts of the designed systems will be assessed using Life Cycle Analysis. To increase and diversify farmers’ income, two business models will be developed:

•  Reduce Reuse Recycle to produce high-quality compost;
• Dairy and meat products and wool from small ruminants.

TRUSTFARM will select one or both business models according to the needs of each case study with the stakeholders through the MIPs. The integrated agro-ecosystem and CSFPs will be disseminated through social media, taking advantage of farmers’ smartphone usage. Among others, this will result in a strong EU and African partnership for R&I to achieve the goals of sustainability and food security.