PrAEctiCe presents digital, policy, and academic evidence at its final agroecology event

PrAEctiCe project is funded by the HORIZON Europe programme under Grant Agreement number 101084248

Home » PrAEctiCe presents digital, policy, and academic evidence at its final agroecology event

April 2, 2026

After 3.5 years of researching and testing agroecology solutions in East Africa, the project marked the near end of its activities with a final event in Entebbe, Uganda, to present outcomes, evidence of impact and promote exploitation of these results.

Organised by Apodissi, the communication and dissemination partner of the project, in collaboration with the National Agriculture Research Organisation team, Kajjansi, Uganda.

The Horizon Europe project funded by the European Commission welcomed 170 physical and online participants, including farmers, university students, researchers, women’s associations, policy makers and international development partners to the Aquaculture Research and Development Centre, Kajjansi, Uganda, to showcase effective agroecological solutions for sustainable water use, climate resilience, and improve the productivity of smallholder farmers in low-income countries.

“Food is humanity, the African population and urbanisation are increasing, but the amount of arable land is decreasing, and at the same time, the productivity is also decreasing, which creates a difficult situation to make enough food for man”. Dr Yona Baguma, Director General, National Agricultural Research Organisation, during his opening speech

A major task at the centre of the project was the definition of the agroecology indicator framework set for smallholder farming systems developed by Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania, Department of Livestock and Fisheries, Kisumu, County (DALF), National Agriculture Research Organisation, RUFORUM and the KISUMU county. This framework created a pathway and evidence for smallholder farmers to follow in their pursuits for more sustainable farming.

In creating this framework, the team identified gaps in existing literature reviews, stakeholder engagement and validation, and tools for agroecology that did not address the East African realities. Gaps included: exclusion of key regional systems, absence of localised systems such as the integrated agriculture aquaculture systems, which were addressed in the Practice Integration Agriculture Aquaculture Indicator Framework deliverable.

“Farmers need cost-saving technologies so that an integrated agriculture and aquaculture system is accessible and affordable.”

Emmanuel Okalany emphasised during his policy recommendation proposition. This proposition is based on data that have been processed and a summary obtained through research conducted and tested.

Training of smallholder farmers was also a key element of the project’s activities. During the panel session, Aruho Cassius, National Agriculture Research Organisation, Janet Maro, Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania, Susa Clare Adhiambo, Department of Livestock and Fisheries, Kisumu, County and Jan Hoinkis, Hochschule Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA) spoke on the training sessions and the circular water energy-nutrient systems that are carried out in each living lab.

In Kenya, the Department of Livestock and Fisheries, Kisumu, County, Kenya, conducted 10 training sessions, training over 800 farmers in fisheries management and vegetable production and now, with the help of the department, two youth companies will uptake this farming practices as the project ends.

In Kajjansi, Uganda, NARO Aquaculture Research and Development Centre has engaged more than 250 stakeholders and trained them in aquaponic food production and will start a train-the-trainer programme for a new set of farmers beginning next week.

The Tanzania living lab, under the maintenance of Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania, has trained 5000 people focusing on the poultry, fish and crops farming systems.

The farmers were also present and represented by Joel Mwambola from the Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania, Justine Bagenda, National Agricultural Research Organisation NARO, Lovin Kobusingye, President, Uganda National Women’s Fish Organisation and Joseph Ochieng, Head of Programs at COFIAuganda.

A cascade training module was also developed during the course of the project for students to learn more about agroecology principles, which is now available and free for students to enrol on the Smart Step platform.

The PrAEctiCe has created ongoing collaboration with other EU-funded projects over the years. These projects have been engaged with at several webinars, knowledge exchanges, and panel sessions at events.

To strengthen this collaboration, the project dedicated a session for these projects to share tools, methodologies, and innovations from their respective projects, identify areas of complementarity, and discuss practical pathways for collaboration.

Representatives included: Dr Erick Ogello, Maseno University, CareForAfrica project, Godfrey Biso, Biotechnologist at Youths in Technology and Development (YITEDEV). Ruralities project, Morris Egesa, African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), Project Coordination Assistant, CANALLS project, and Dr Benjamin Emmanuel, who represented the FCI4Africa project, INCiTiS-FOOD, Life, and the FrontAg Nexus Project.