The Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) Program comprises three regional research-in-development projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development as part of the US Government’s Feed the Future initiative.
Inaugurated in late 2011 and currently in its second phase (since September 2016), the purpose of Africa RISING is to provide pathways out of hunger and poverty for smallholder farm families through sustainably intensified farming systems that sufficiently improve food, nutrition and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is responsible for data management, evaluation, and impact assessment across all three projects.
The program’s focus is on sustainable intensification of production from small-scale, crop−livestock farming systems, through integrated multidisciplinary research to deliver a basket of technological innovations that will be disseminated to farmers through complementary development partnerships. The demand-driven research ensures that the program’s outputs are ultimately scaled to receptive and informed beneficiary households.
Implementing partners are drawn from international and national agricultural research and extension systems, development organizations, farmers, community-based organizations, and input/ output dealers.
Guided by the farming systems, national priorities, and the household typologies identified during Phase 1, the program aims to scale Africa RISING innovations to at least 1.1 million households by 2021. The evidence base generated through this widespread dissemination will help catalyze further partnerships that will put the promising technologies and integrated interventions into the hands of millions of rural people in Africa.