Online information session: Water-Food-Nexus call

AIM OF THE CALL

Scaling of soil moisture retention practices has not taken place because (on the short term) it has often not been profitable, desirable or simply not possible from a farmer’s perspective to invest in the moisture holding capacity of the soil. With the predicted increased severity of dry spells caused by climate change, however, the role of soil moisture as buffer against production losses becomes more important. Therefore, when dry spells increase in frequency and severity, the relative profitability and/or desirability of investing in soil moisture retention might increase.

For this call, rainfed agri-food systems include: cropping systems, mixed farming systems (e.g. with food-fodder-livestock) and pastoralist systems.

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:

• Gain insights in the socio-economic barriers and opportunities in the enabling environment for scaling of water retention practices with a changing climate;
• Gain insights in and provide options for governance functions and governance attributes that support scaling-up of moisture retention practices;
• To strengthen cooperation among CGIAR researchers, Dutch researchers and local partners.

Consortia can choose whether to focus on either the first or the second objective, always in combination with the third objective, or to focus on all three objectives at the same time.

Research projects are to be executed in Sub-Sahara Africa. Projects that focus on one country need to take place in one of the Dutch MoFA focus countries/regions. Multi-country projects need to include at least one of the Dutch MoFA focus countries/regions. The Dutch MoFA focus countries/regions are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ethiopia, Great Lakes Region (eastern DRC, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda), Kenya, Mali, Niger, Mozambique, Sudan, Uganda, South Sudan.

CONSORTIUM

The challenges addressed in this Call for Proposals are interrelated and multi-scalar, and to reach impact require a holistic approach that spans the entire research and innovation chain. The consortia therefore crosscut scientific disciplinary boundaries (interdisciplinarity) and integrate scientific and practitioners’ knowledge in joint research (transdisciplinarity). The proposed research evolves in a process of co-creation with different partners. The consortium exists of: researchers from CGIAR centres, Sub-Saharan African knowledge institutes and Dutch knowledge institutes (including universities of applied sciences), as well as stakeholders from National Agricultural Research and Extension Services (NARES) and from local/regional/national governments to submit a research proposal to the Dutch research council (NWO).

ONLINE INFORMATION MEETING 8 JULY 2024

8 July 2024, from 13:00-15:00 CEST, NWO organises an online information meeting to provide more information on the call, to answer questions and to provide an option for attendees to meet each other. Please register below for the information meeting. The call is expected to be published on the NWO website end of June 2024. To participate, please use the registration form below.

ABOUT THE NL-CGIAR RESEARCH PROGRAMME

The Netherlands (NL) - CGIAR research programme contributes to transformational change in agriculture around the world by advancing food system knowledge and joint public and private innovation. The programme is part of the strategic partnership between the Government of the Netherlands and CGIAR. A first Phase ran from 2017-2023, Phase II runs from 2024-2030.