Negotiating ecosystem service and livelihood trade-offs in SAI

Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) of mixed crop, tree and livestock farming landscapes has the potential to reverse land degradation and improve crop productivity, livestock feed availability, energy and food security. However, opportunities for many smallholders, especially women and young people, to benefit from SAI remain elusive.

This research project aims to influence policy and practice by increasing the uptake of context-appropriate SAI interventions in East and southern Africa through evidence generation, multi-scale trade-off analysis, data analytics and the development of innovative evidence-based tools for stakeholder engagement and decision-making.

The project engages stakeholder groups on the effectiveness of SAI-relevant policies and interventions through the SHARED approach (Stakeholder Approach to Risk-informed and Evidence-based Decision-making) which incorporates an open access platform called the ‘SAI Dashboard’ connecting stakeholders to real-time data and evidence.