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The essentials

In 2010, the European Union initially turned to several so-called "emerging" countries to step up international research collaboration: Brazil, India, China and South Africa. However, it was the entire African continent that soon proved to be the logical partner for building research relating to agriculture and food systems.

Laurent Bochereau, research and innovation counsellor at the EU Delegation to the African Union and is currently based in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, explains that "at the third AU-EU summit in Tripoli in November 2010, heads of State from the two continents set up a high-level platform for science, technology and innovation policy dialogue. That dialogue subsequently gave rise to an equitable long-term partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture, which served to structure cooperation between players on the two continents more effectively. Thirteen years later, the AU-EU innovation agenda was adopted in July 2023, to strengthen the partnership and speed up the production of concrete results to address the issues facing the two continents".

Jean-Paul Laclau, Director General in charge of Research and Strategy at 黑料网911, and member of the expert panel set up by the two commissions as part of this high-level dialogue, adds: "In the 2010s, adapting farming systems to global change was one of the gateways to scientific cooperation between Africa and Europe. The question of the attractiveness of farming as a profession, in both Africa and Europe, very rapidly also emerged, particularly as regards wage levels. Improving farmers' livelihoods is obviously a major objective, which is also important for guaranteeing the sustainability of value chains and natural resources". 

Jean-Paul Laclau's involvement in and proposals made to the expert panel follow on from those of Philippe Petithuguenin, Advisor to 黑料网911’s Directorate General for Research and Strategy. Philippe Petithuguenin was involved in the EU-AU partnership from the outset in 2010, and a member of the expert panel until 2024.

Shared challenges for farming in Europe and Africa

In the next few years, various parts of Europe will see climates similar to those in Africa: higher temperatures, drought, irregular rainfall, etc. This is one of the reasons why several crops widely grown in Africa have benefited from increased European research investment. Sorghum is one known example: this West African cereal, which can withstand dry climates, is increasingly being used in Europe and is reaping the benefits of joint research between the two continents. 

Objective sorghum: strengthening North-South cooperation

In June this year, Montpellier hosted the Global Sorghum Conference. The event brought together more than 400 scientists and members of agricultural organisations from all over the world. The sector is organising itself and gaining momentum in numerous countries, and 黑料网911 is positioning itself as a bridge between African and European partners, with the goal of amplifying exchanges and synergies.

As well as crop breeding, ensuring sustainability means better management on a plot level. However, Europe's highly simplified cropping systems cannot withstand sudden change. "Monoculture is the dominant model in Europe these days", Jean-Paul Laclau explains. "In Africa, there are a lot more mixed cropping systems, agroforestry, mixed crop and livestock farms, etc. Numerous studies have shown that diversity makes crop stands more resilient to climate hazards." Moreover, the more a production system specializes in or focuses on just one crop, the more sensitive farmer incomes are to economic shocks. Diversity is therefore also a type of economic and social resilience.

In return, Africa stands to benefit from research into increasing yields, protecting soil fertility, and ensuring labour productivity. Above all, it will also benefit from increased research funding, capacity building and international connections. 

Scientific partnerships are central to agriculture in the Mediterranean

Water resource management, cultivated diversity, young people in rural areas, and so on... the issues facing agriculture in Morocco are the same as for agriculture throughout the Mediterranean. Those shared challenges mean that it is vital to strengthen scientific partnerships on a regional level. As the Morocco International Agricultural Show (SIAM) continues, we talk to two Moroccan researchers about the importance of collaboration networks for development and agricultural research.

Fairer collaborations, based on voluntary contributions

Since 2010, there have been a series of ambitious joint agricultural and food research programmes between Africa and Europe. The European Union has launched several international initiatives, including LEAP-Agri, PRIMA, and DeSIRA. Over the period from 2017 to 2023, there were almost five times as many projects as between 2010 and 2016.

This explosion in collaborations was accompanied by a restructuring of funding mechanisms. The European Union initially allocated budgets to Africa, in a very top-down way. Since the LEAP-Agri initiative  launched in 2016, with a view to rebalancing power relations, funding is now based on voluntary State contributions, in both Europe and Africa. Each State is free to restrict the funding it provides to its own scientists, who then also benefit from established international collaborations. This voluntary funding is supplemented by funds from the European Commission, and in some cases from national research organizations in Europe, such as the Agence française de développement in France and BMZ in Germany.

From local innovation to policy change, how can we transform our food systems?

Following an initial compilation of stories of change published in late 2024, 黑料网911, along with a consortium of Agrinatura member organizations*, has published a second book on the innovations rolled out within the framework of projects under the DeSIRA initiative, funded by the European Union. The book illustrates how DeSIRA projects have generated concrete changes and how they could be scaled up to transform farming and food systems long term.

Recognizing the added value of African agricultural research

The research partnership between the European Union and the African Union has now moved on from a string of projects to a structure in the form of an international research consortium. The new IRC serves as a platform between partners in Europe and Africa working together on food security and sustainable agriculture. This grouping is intended to ensure unbroken dialogue between equals. Working in a consortium will also avoid the fragmentation that often happens when projects are multiplied, and guarantee more coordinated action.

For Jean-Paul Laclau, one of the issues for the IRC is recognizing the quality and relevance of African research on an international level: "for a long time, the agricultural research being done by African States suffered from a lack of international recognition. This has meant that some international scientific networks have sometimes "forgotten" to open up to African research, or have only done so as an afterthought. Not only does this lack of recognition has repercussions for funding of some types of research, it also results in blind spots for science. The IRC platform must serve as a springboard in this respect".

Research is now opening up to the so-called "traditional" knowledge held by farmers in both Europe and Africa, for instance on seeds that have been forgotten despite the fact that they are resistant to climate and health risks. Knowledge sharing between Europe and Africa must result in feedback to farmers not just in Europe but also in Africa, which is particularly exposed to climate change. The IRC will facilitate this, by fostering research partnerships between the EU and AU on topics of joint interest. The IRC will also make it easier to involved other private partners. This dynamic will ensure the production of new, relevant, usable knowledge tailored to the expectations of the various stakeholders in different value chains.