Circular Food Systems in Africa

Project Summary

The Circular Food Systems in Africa (CFS) project, funded by the Australian government through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), is a transformative initiative focused on integrating irrigation, livestock, and dryland agricultural production to establish climate-smart, circular food systems in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. By leveraging smallholder irrigation schemes as a foundation, the project aims to foster sustainable resource use, enhance local livelihoods, and increase resilience to climate change.

Through co-designed solutions with local stakeholders, the project prioritizes gender equality and youth inclusion, creating opportunities for women and young people in small and medium enterprises (SMMEs). It focuses on reducing resource consumption, optimizing value chains, and scaling sustainable practices through policy reform and innovative financing mechanisms.

Key outcomes include improved food security, economic growth, and climate resilience, demonstrating how circular food systems can decouple social and economic benefits from environmental costs. By bridging scientific research and practical implementation, the CFS project is setting a new benchmark for sustainable food systems in Africa.

Working in at least 5 localities in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, the project aims to use agricultural innovation platforms to build a mutual understanding of the basics of circularity (including creating local jobs for women and other underserved groups in value-adding locally) and facilitate the integration and inclusive co-design of local small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and associated value chains.

Project Objectives
    1. To identify conditions for the successful establishment of circular food systems (centred on irrigation schemes serving smallholder farming communities).
    2. To identify approaches to improve gender equality and social inclusion in circular food systems (CFS) and local food systems, and the conditions that improve food security and livelihoods.
    3. To investigate whether CFS result in decoupling resource use from increasing socio-economic benefit and enable more resilient communities and low-emission agriculture.

    Intended Outcomes:

    1. Evidence base for CFS: Develop a stronger evidence base on how CFS interventions use natural resources (particularly water and land) more productively and create sustainable local food systems and resilient rural communities in a changing climate.
    2. Decoupling of growth and resource use: Develop a stronger evidence base on how CFS interventions support decoupling of growth in social and economic benefits (including local livelihood opportunities for women and youth) from the consumption of natural resources.
    3. Scaling out: Develop a stronger evidence base on how CFS interventions can be self-sustaining, scale out autonomously, and be scaled out through policy reform at district, provincial, and national scales.
    4. Gender: Improve leadership and decision-making of women, youth, and other underserved groups, promoting their access to economic assets and opportunities.

    Partners

    Australian National University; Ardhi University; Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network; International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics; University of Eduardo Mondlane; National Institute of Irrigation

    The Circular Food Systems in Africa project (WAC/2023/111) is funded by the Australian Government through the  Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR)