Agricultural production and soil use are at a high risk of being strongly affected by global climate change, having large repercussions on farmers’ food security and rural livelihoods. To ensure sustainable food production for a growing global population and farmers’ livelihoods, as well as to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, agroecological practices that improve and rehabilitate agricultural soils are urgently needed.

Under the umbrella of the BMZ-funded Global Programme Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security (ProSoil) , the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in 2021 launched an EU-co-funding called ProSilience to promote the agroecological transition towards sustainable agri-food systems in selected partner countries. ProSilience is part of the EU DeSIRA initiative (Development of Smart Innovations Through Research in Agriculture) and covers the ProSoil partner countries Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya and Madagascar. The ProSoil partner countries Burkina Faso, India and Tunisia are also subject of some ProSilience activities such as leadership development or a methodological guidance to conduct economic analyses.

To be successful, the promoted agroecological practices must be based on thorough scientific research and expert wisdom, including knowledge of the interlinkages between climate change and the physical, ecological, and socio-economical dimensions of agriculture. Since measurable good practices are still insufficient, further scientific investigation is needed on the costs and benefits of agroecological practices, their impact on rural livelihoods, economy, ecology and their adaptation and mitigation benefits. Although a lot of different methodologies exist to analyze the socioeconomic and environmental evidence, not all of them are applicable to interventions in Development Cooperation because they are very knowledge intensive and can be time-consuming.

To provide guidance in this regard, HFFA Research GmbH was commissioned by GIZ in June 2022, to develop a methodological guidance for GIZ staff and their partners to accompany the preparation and implementation of such analyses and offer the frame for a common approach among the different country packages on how to conduct socio-economic analyses and valuation of ecosystem services at ProSoil (and similar DC programmes) in the future. 

Therefore, our team developed a methodological guide for conducting socio-economic analyses in ProSoils’ partner countries to assess costs and benefits of agroecological practices for farming households as well as to assess the environmental and climatic effects at (agro)ecosystem and societal level.  

In addition, we have reviewed the economic results of studies that have already been carried out in the ProSoil partner countries between 2014 and today and summarized them in a second publication aimed at the respective stakeholders from political institutions, donor organizations, and GIZ employees.   

The Methodological Guidance can be downloaded in French and in English.

The review on Economic Benefits through Agroecological Soil Practices: Evidence by ProSoil can be downloaded here.  

For more detailed information on this project, please contact us.