Silvopastoral agroforestry practices significantly enhance animal welfare and health by creating more natural, comfortable, and varied environments compared to conventional open-pasture systems, especially regarding reduced heat stress, reduced animal diseases, better-quality forage, and the use of ethnopharmacological plants. Field surveys will also be conducted to gather data on forage nutritional diversity, animal welfare, health, and the potential exploitation of ethnopharmacological plants. These surveys will be conducted in collaboration with local communities and project partners. Attention will be given to the risks associated with animal productivity and health, and their implications for Food Security. The project combines field surveys, animal health assessments, and forage analyses across the six Living Labs. It evaluates how tree presence affects microclimate (shade, temperature), forage diversity and nutritional quality, and animal behaviour and welfare. In parallel, it documents locally used medicinal plants and tests their potential to improve animal health and reduce reliance on costly veterinary drugs. This generates practical knowledge on which tree–livestock–plant combinations perform best under different environmental conditions. For practitioners, the key outcome is clear guidance on designing and managing silvopastoral systems that improve livestock performance. Planting suitable tree species can reduce heat stress, improve weight gain, and enhance reproduction. Diversified forage systems increase nutrient intake and resilience during dry periods. Integrating ethnoveterinary plants offers a low-cost option for disease prevention and treatment. The main benefits include improved animal welfare, reduced veterinary costs, higher productivity, and a more stable food supply. Initial investments involve tree establishment and knowledge acquisition, while long-term returns include improved herd health, reduced risk, and increased farm resilience.

This study addresses the lack of empirical evidence on how agroforestry affects human health, despite its rapid promotion as a climate and restoration solution. It focuses on improving nutrition, reducing heat stress, and lowering vector-borne disease risks for smallholder farmers across six Living Labs in the African Union.. Using comparative health impact assessments, the project evaluates agroforestry versus open-field monoculture systems through three pathways. First, it models year-round micronutrient supply by combining seasonal production data with nutrient composition, identifying critical gaps. Second, it quantifies microclimate cooling effects using WBGT to estimate safe working hours and labour capacity. Third, it assesses risks of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases using a Hazard–Exposure–Vulnerability framework, integrating data on microclimate, biodiversity, and socio-economic conditions with AI-based mosquito and wildlife monitoring. Together, these generate evidence on how agroforestry system design influences diet quality, worker health, and disease risk. Practitioners can use the results to design agroforestry systems that include species filling seasonal nutrition gaps, improving diets at relatively low cost. Integrating shade trees and adjusting work calendars can reduce heat stress and extend safe working hours. Improved vegetation structure and biodiversity management can also help lower disease risks. While initial investments in seedlings, knowledge, and monitoring may be required, benefits include diversified production, improved resilience, reduced health risks, and potentially higher long-term returns through more stable yields and labour productivity. The findings support context-specific agroforestry designs that simultaneously advance nutrition, health, labour capacity, and climate adaptation.

Agroforestry systems are often promoted as a way to improve farmers’ livelihoods and resilience, but there is still limited evidence on how they perform compared to conventional farming systems across diverse agroecological zones and cultural contexts. Within AfroGrow, HSG is developing a harmonised monitoring framework to assess the socio-economic dimensions of agroforestry across six African regions. The approach combines three complementary methods. First, a participatory cost-benefit analysis (PCBA) enables farmers in the Living Labs to record key data such as yields, labour, expenses, and income using simple pen-and-paper tools. Second, a cross-regional survey collects information on livelihoods, including income, working conditions, food security, well-being, access to services, and knowledge. Third, qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups help to understand farmers’ experiences, social impacts, and unintended effects. These data are complemented by existing evidence and, where possible, linked with biophysical data to provide a comprehensive and comparable socio-economic assessment of agroforestry systems. This approach generates knowledge of trade-offs among costs, labour, and benefits, supporting the development of strategies to address them. Additionally, it provides evidence on how agroforestry can improve livelihoods and resilience across different environmental and cultural settings, including differences in impacts for women and men. At the same time, the PCBA contributes to building local knowledge and skills for more efficient farm management and tests its potential for scaling. The knowledge generated will feed into downstream AfroGrow activities to support capacity building at scale and inform policies for socially sustainable agroforestry. Over time, this can help farmers reduce costs and improve yields, strengthening food security and well-being, while supporting better decision-making, reduced risk, and more sustainable land use.

Rising temperatures, prolonged drought periods, and irregular rainfall patterns increasingly threaten agricultural productivity across Africa. These climatic challenges lead to reduced crop yields, heat stress for farmers and livestock, and greater uncertainty in farm management. A key barrier to effective adaptation is the limited availability of localized, actionable information on how agroforestry, integrating trees with crops and livestock, can improve microclimatic conditions at the farm level. Within the AfroGrow project, AUTH is developing an integrated monitoring methodology that combines satellite-based Earth Observation data with in-situ measurements from low-cost weather sensors deployed across the six Living Labs. This approach enables the quantification of how different agroforestry configurations influence local climatic conditions. Key findings will highlight the significance of agroforestry systems in reducing temperature extremes, enhancing soil moisture retention, and providing effective wind protection for crops compared to conventional open-field systems. Furthermore, climate suitability maps have been developed to guide the selection of tree species best adapted to current and future climatic conditions in specific locations. Farmers can apply these findings to improve their land management by planting native, drought-resistant trees along their field boundaries and progressively building a climate-drought-resilient system. The main benefits include healthier crops, reduced heat stress for farmers and livestock, better soil moisture retention, and more stable yields. Although the primary investment is the time needed to plant and maintain trees, the long-term benefits are greater and result in a more reliable income.

Changing landscapes and shifting climates are making pest and disease-vector management across West African farms increasingly difficult. Modern agricultural systems often lose the natural balance provided by diverse insect populations, leading to greater reliance on costly chemicals and increased health risks. A key challenge is understanding how to apply biological tools and landscape design to protect both crops and communities. This work assesses ecological dynamics in agroforestry systems, focusing on arthropod pests, their interactions with plants, beneficial insects (e.g., biological control agents), and impacts on human and animal disease vectors. It examines how management practices influence pest populations, plant diseases, and pollinator communities across scales, identifying vulnerabilities, future food insecurity hotspots, and potential declines in agroforestry services. Using existing vector data (vectoratlas.org) and field trapping, ICIPE is developing improved monitoring and management approaches. Environmental DNA techniques are used to identify beneficial pollinators and soil health indicators directly in the field. Mapping tools pinpoint where disease vectors (e.g., mosquitoes) and beneficial insects are most abundant, supporting optimized land management and policy integration. Bioprospecting is also being explored to identify local fungi and plants that can be developed into safe, targeted biopesticides. These insights enable farmers to design productive, safe ecosystems by selecting tree combinations that support natural enemies, pests, and pollinators. The main benefits are reduced reliance on synthetic pesticides and lower household risk of insect-borne diseases. Although farmers must invest effort in learning monitoring techniques and maintaining diverse systems, the long-term outcome is greater farm resilience, higher yields, and improved environmental and community health.

Water scarcity due to less frequent and more erratic rainfall is a major challenge for farmers across many regions in sub-Saharan Africa. Agroforestry systems can help address this challenge, as trees in agricultural fields can improve soil structure, increase organic matter, and regulate soil water distribution, which can enhance water infiltration, improve soil moisture retention, and increase water availability for crops. However, these effects vary depending on local conditions and system design. Within AfroGrow, Agrotecnio assesses how woody vegetation affects soil water dynamics in agroforestry systems across the six Living Labs. This is done through targeted field measurements and monitoring activities, including repeated soil moisture monitoring, selected measurements of water infiltration, and runoff assessments in specific sites. By comparing different agroforestry systems and management practices, the project generates practical knowledge on how trees influence water availability in the soil under different soil and climate conditions. This will help to identify where agroforestry can support water conservation and water security, but also where potential negative effects may occur, such as competition for water between trees and crops under dry conditions. The results can support farmers and land managers in making more informed decisions about how to integrate trees into their fields. Depending on local conditions, suitable tree species and system designs may help reduce water losses, improve soil moisture retention, or limit erosion. At the same time, the findings highlight the importance of adapting tree density, species choice, and management practices to avoid unwanted effects. While establishing agroforestry systems requires time and resources, the knowledge generated can help reduce risks and support more context-specific, efficient use of available water in farming systems.

Integrating trees into agricultural fields can significantly change the environment in which crops grow, affecting their access to light, water, and nutrients. While agroforestry can boost overall farm productivity, farmers often face uncertainty regarding how specific crops will respond to tree competition or shade, and how this impacts the nutritional quality of the food produced. Within AfroGrow, ETHZ is assessing how various agroforestry management practices, such as specific planting densities and tree-crop combinations, influence crop growth and biomass. The team measures the aboveground biomass and elemental composition of associated crops, specifically tracking Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium across a variety of agroforestry systems. This allows the project to evaluate how the tree-soil-crop nexus translates into crop yields and nutritional value. By comparing these integrated systems with conventional monocropping, the research identifies the most effective combinations for producing high-quality, nutritious food. The results will help farmers choose the best crops and management techniques to pair with their trees. By identifying practices that maximize nutrient uptake and biomass production, farmers can increase their food security and crop quality. This knowledge reduces the "trial and error" often associated with new farming methods, helping practitioners balance the benefits of tree cover with the need for stable, high-yielding, and nutritious harvests.

Land degradation and declining soil fertility are critical challenges for farmers across Africa, often resulting in lower crop yields and reduced resilience to climate change. While agroforestry is known to improve soil, there is a lack of standardized, affordable data to show exactly how different tree-crop systems restore soil health and store soil carbon across different climatic and pedological regions. Within AfroGrow, ETHZ is developing a harmonized soil monitoring framework to assess soil health across the six Living Labs. Building on ICRAF’s established Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF), soil samples will be collected at field scale at 0-10cm, 10-30cm, and 30-60cm to understand how nutrients and carbon are distributed throughout the soil profile and how differences in tree and crop systems can have differing effects according to pedoclimatic region. To enhance accessibility and cost-effectiveness, soil spectroscopy will be employed to analyze soil samples and predict soil properties using ICRAF’s global models. This allows rapid assessment of key indicators such as Soil Organic Carbon, Nitrogen, pH, and nutrient availability without the high costs of traditional lab chemicals. Furthermore, inter- and intraregional comparisons of selected common agroforestry systems will allow for detailed understanding of which edaphic and climatic conditions can support improvements in soil health for which systems. These findings will provide farmers and land managers with clear evidence of which agroforestry practices currently best restore soil vitality and increase long-term productivity in their given pedoclimatic region as their climate changes. By understanding the "invisible" health of their soil, such as its ability to hold nutrients and store carbon, farmers can make better decisions about fertilizer use and land management. This reduces the risk of land degradation and ensures that farming systems remain productive and fertile for future generations.