As part of the NATAE project on agroecological transition, CREAD organized a training session on April 27 and 28 dedicated to the extraction of essential oils and hydrosols from aromatic and medicinal plants. This session was aimed at women involved in the Tizi-Ouzou Living Lab, participating in the scenario focused on the development of agroforestry activities. The objective is to strengthen local capacities in the face of climate change and the scarcity of agricultural land
The MEDAE network is pleased to invite you to participate in the webinar ” How can agroecology be a lever for women’s emancipation in North Africa ? “ which will take place on Tuesday April 22, 2025 (14:00 -16:00 CET).
Summary :
This webinar will look at the place of women in food systems in North Africa, and how agroecology is helping to empower them. Presentations by researchers and farmers from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco will provide a better understanding of how agroecology can empower rural women, enabling them to access new economic opportunities and participate in collective territorial dynamics. Several question and answer sessions will be held to enable participants to react to the presentations and share their own experience and vision of more inclusive rural development.
The webinar will be held in French, with English translation provided.
Program (CET) :
14h00-14h10 – Welcome, contextualization of the webinar, presentation of the webinar and speakers
Morgane Gaudin, MEDAE network Coordinator – CARI Association
14h10-14h20 – Introduction of the webinar : Role and place of women in agroecology in North Africa
Zoubir Chattou, Researcher at the Ecole Nationale d’Agriculture de Meknès (ENAM)
14h20-14h35 – TUNISIA : Neo-rural women settling in agroecology in oasis and peri-urban systems
Imene Chelbi, Farmer and founder of the El Rochen farm
14h35-14h55 – First question and answer session
14h55-15h10 – ALGERIA : Agroecology and emancipation of rural women in mountain agroecosystems
Karima Boudedja, Senior researcher at the Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée pour le Développement (CREAD)
15h10-15h25 – MOROCCO : Agroecology and emancipation of rural women in mountain agroecosystems
Ghizlane Echchgadda, Teacher-researcher at the Ecole Nationale d’Agriculture de Meknès (ENAM)
15h25-15h45 – Second question and answer session
15h45-15h55 – Closing remarks by the great witness
Rachel Bezner Kerr, Teacher at the Cornell University
16h00 – End of the webinar
The registration is mandatory, so sign up now here.
From February 19 to 23, 2025, the Laghouat Living Lab hosted a cross-visit during which local and international experts shared their knowledge and experience in the face of contemporary climatic and economic challenges. For five days, participants explored together how to combine ancestral techniques and innovative approaches to build resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.
The second cross-visit of the NATAE project brought together around twenty experts from the Maghreb and Europe : farmers from the Laghouat and Tizi Ouzou LL (Algeria), actors from the Adrar Replication Laboratory (Mauritania) and Kébili RL (Tunisia), as well as researchers from CREAD, INAT (Tunisia) and WUR (Netherlands).
The El Argoub association organized a program structured around three major issues :
Field visits formed the backbone of these exchanges. In traditional gardens, participants analyzed the ancestral “water tower” system via the seguias. Local farmers shared their techniques for collectively managing this scarce resource, prompting enriching comparisons with practices in Tunisia and Mauritania. A visit to the Tadjmout underground inferoflux dam, which captures floodwater while preventing evaporation losses, sparked lively discussions between hydrogeologists, researchers and farmers on hydraulic infrastructures adapted to arid zones.
During the farms visits, each participant was able to question, compare and document integrated crop-livestock systems specific to the oasis context. Mauritanian farmers shared their practices for adapting to even more arid conditions, while Tunisians presented their innovations in energy-saving irrigation. These exchanges in the field helped to collectively identify the resilience factors of agricultural systems in the face of climatic changes.
Workshops were held to methodically dissect field observations. The first workshop, dedicated to water management, compared traditional techniques with modern technological approaches. Participants mapped all the solutions observed, assessing their transferability from one territory to another.
A second workshop focused on value chains, dissecting the transformation processes observed in several production units. Farmers presented their techniques for valorizing date by-products, cheese-making and bee-keeping, triggering detailed technical exchanges on processes, equipment, costs and marketing strategies. Short circuits and e-commerce were the subject of comparative analyses between the different regions represented. The workshop on the co-construction of knowledge deeply impressed the participants. The El Argoub association presented its organizational model, sparking a collective reflection on cooperative structures as levers for agricultural innovation.
These exchanges and debates helped to formalize learning, identify transferable practices and contribute to new expertise and knowledge. These moments of collective intelligence recommended to maintain the exchange network in order to create a cross-border community of agricultural innovation adapted to the climatic challenges of arid zones.
For the final day, the participants discovered the Saharan Atlas and Djebel Amour, revealing the thousand-year-old history of this region where human ingenuity has always been able to adapt to environmental constraints. The Ksar of Taouiala, with its terraced gardens and irrigation system, as well as the rock carving stations, including the famous “elephant protecting her baby elephant” at El Ghicha, bear witness to the temporal depth of the relationship between man and his environment in this region.
This week of professional immersion demonstrated that oasis agriculture, far from being a relic of the past, is a model for the future, where traditional knowledge and technical innovation combine to shape resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.
The ENAM team recently welcomed two master’s students from Wageningen University as part of the NATAE project. One of the students, Luigi Lugaresi, worked on the technical aspects and experimentation of associating fenugreek, an aromatic and medicinal plant, with olive trees in Skoura. The other student, Fay De Beer, focused on studying and conducting surveys with male and female farmers, both within and outside of cooperatives in the Skoura Living Lab. For her work, she needed to organize a focus group with the women of the Safirat Al Aachab cooperative, so Safa Aatig who is part of the ENAM team organized this session and participated as an animator, facilitator, and translator during the focus group. The aim was to gather insights from the women about their vision for the future development of the cooperative and the techniques they believe are necessary to make this vision a reality.
Held on March 1, 2025 in Skoura M’daz, the Safirat Al Aachab cooperative members in the focus group discussion shared their vision for the future. In 2035, the three participating members aimed to cultivate 100% of their raw materials, growth from the current 70% purchased externally. It also includes the expansion of the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants such as saffron, lavender and oregano, which they started in 2024 and 2025.
The members of the cooperative emphasized their willingness to maintain the cooperative’s small and close-knit structure and do not want to admit new members. They visualize cultivating approximately 10 hectares by 2035 with both owned and rented land and concentrating on sustainable practices like drip irrigation. Besides, they showed an interest in obtaining ONSSA certification that would help in applying for government grants as well as to improve their products. However, they continue to reaffirm their commitment to reinvesting all profits back into the cooperative and not taking personal income.
From January 25th to 28th, 20 farmers, researchers, and development actors from Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, France, and the Netherlands met in Tunisia for the first cross-visit organized as part of the NATAE project. The participants included laboratory representatives from Laghouat, Tizi Ouzou and Setif (Algeria), and Boulmane (Morocco), as well as researchers from WUR and IAMM.
With the support of INAT (National Agronomic Institute in Tunisia), participants were able to travel to the governorate of Siliana, El Krib delegation, in the north-west of the country, to meet stakeholders involved in the agroecological transition of their territory and discuss with them three major issues in this cereal-producing area: (i) soil fertility, (ii) integration of legumes into cereal systems, (iii) access to information and agricultural extension.
The program included farm visits, a tour of the INGC (National Institute of Field Crops) experimentation station, and restitution workshops. These days were rich in experience and knowledge sharing and highlighted relevant agroecological practices to improve food security and sovereignty in North African countries in the context of climate change.
This visit was the first of the 4 cross-visits scheduled for 2025, which aim to encourage exchanges between living laboratories and replication laboratories set up in the project’s intervention countries so that farmers, researchers and development actors can draw inspiration from the agroecological actions and practices developed there, and share their own experience. These visits are also an opportunity to create new synergies between stakeholders involved in the agroecological transition in North Africa. The next step in Algeria from February 20th to 23rd is to meet the actors of the Laghouat living laboratory, located in an oasis farming system.
The National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (INAT) invites agronomy, rural economics, and sociology students to a hands-on field school in Kebili, Tunisia, as part of the NATAE project. Open to final-year engineering and Master’s students from NATAE member countries, this is a unique opportunity to engage with agroecology and industry experts. (https://www.iamm.ciheam.org/fr/project/natae/).
Objectives of the field school
Supervised by INAT researchers, NATAE partners, and local socio-economic actors, this field school aims to conduct a territorial diagnosis of the Kebili oases. Participants will analyze local agricultural, economic, and social dynamics, focusing on sustainable development and agroecological transition.
Through surveys, stakeholder exchanges, and spatial analysis, students will gain hands-on field experience, contribute to understanding oasis ecosystems, and propose action plans for a successful agroecological transition.
Practical details:
When: April 12 to April 19, 2025
Where: Kebili
What is covered: Local Transport in Tunisia, accommodation and meals related to participation in
the school.
What is not covered: International transport, personal expenses.
Eligibility criteria:
• Be a student in the final year of the engineering cycle or in a master’s degree from one of the
member countries of the NATAE project (https://www.iamm.ciheam.org/fr/project/natae/).
• Have a strong interest in themes related to agroecology and sustainable development.
• Fluency in French.
How to apply
Interested candidates must submit:
• An up-to-date CV
• A cover letter explaining your interest in the field school and your career aspirations.
• Commitment to participate in the entire field school.
Application Deadline
Applications must be sent no later than February 15, 2025 by email to the following address:
saoussen.ayadi@inat.ucar.tn
Applications that are incomplete or received after this date will not be considered.
Selection
Successful applicants will be contacted by email by March 10, 2025.
For more information, contact us at: saoussen.ayadi@inat.ucar.tn
We look forward to your applications!
The Living Lab of El Krib in the Siliana district, Tunisia, marked the start of the 2024-25 cropping season with a Field Kick-Off Day on October 24, 2024 under the NATAE project. Supported by the CGIAR Research Initiative on Agroecology and hosted by ICARDA in collaboration with INGC, INAT, and local stakeholders, the event brought together 54 participants, including farmers, researchers, extension agents, and NGOs with a remarkable 50% female participation.
The initiative aligns with NATAE’s broader goals to scale up agroecological practices across North Africa through its seven Living Labs located in five countries (Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia), addressing multi-aspect challenges at the economic, environmental, social, and policy levels. A key objective of this event was gathering farmers’ feedback on the co-designed agroecological practices that were identified at the El Krib Living Lab site, and therefore to help further refine these practices and guide the Living Lab’s research roadmap in the following phases of the project.
The four agroecological practices were co-designed under the NATAE project mainly in response to the challenges faced in the El Krib Living Lab such as poor soils, irregular rainfall, and soil erosion, given the semi-arid climate, and the vulnerability of the local agricultural system which revolves around cereal-livestock farming.
The Field Kick-Off Day was an interactive experience, emphasizing co-creation and knowledge exchange between the different attendees. Farmers engaged in discussions, provided feedback on proposed practices, and witnessed a rainfall simulation showcasing the benefits of no-till farming for water retention and soil conservation.
Read more about it: Unleashing Agroecology in Tunisia: Highlights from NATAE’s Inspiring Field Kick-Off Day
MEDAE will implement a webinar that will present the results of a cross-sectional analysis of public policies in North Africa, as well as an examination of the place of agroecology in international conventions, and will look at the extent to which these policies provide a favourable or unfavourable framework for the agroecological transition. There will be time for discussion on the prospects for supporting agroecology and ways of encouraging the agroecological transition in North Africa.
Program (CET)
• 14:00 – Welcome
• 14:05 – Presentation of the MEDAE network (MEDiterranean multiactor network on AgroEcology).
Marion Comptour, MEDAE Network Coordinator – CARI Association
• 14:20 – Discussion
• 14:30 – Agroecology in the national public policies of North African countries.
Rita Jalkh, post-doctoral fellow and project manager NATAE– CIHEAM IAMM
• 15:00 – The place of agroecology in farmer practices: the case of Algeria.
Adel Moulai, researcher and project coordinator – El-Argoub Association
• 15:20 – International conventions as possible levers for a better integration of agroecology into national public policies.
Manon Albagnac, in charge of the follow-up to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification – Association CARI
• 15:35 – Discussion
• 16:00 – End of webinar
The registration is mandatory, so sign up now here
More information to come on https://www.medae-agroecology.eu
Workshop aims and objectives
Following-up on the webinar ‘Agroecology Living Labs in Africa’, during which the four projects under the Horizon Europe Farm to Fork program PrAEctiCE, CANALLS, CIRAWA and NATAE shared their perspectives on the development of Living Labs throughout Africa, an offline workshop was co-organized during the Open Living Lab Days 2024 in Timișoara, Romania. The 1.5 h event brought together in a roundtable discussion participants who were either involved in a Living Lab setting (GDA SIDI Amor, Tunisia or Basaksehir Living-Lab, Turkey) or interested in the Living Lab approach (Digital4Planet) and particular within agricultural research and extension (Acta, France)
The aim of this workshop was to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences among established and upcoming food systems Living Labs throughout Africa and to delve into the opportunities and challenges that arise when international projects set up and operate Living Labs in Africa.
Roundtable discussion and take-home-messages
The roundtable discussion centered around following questions:
Following points were emphasized throughout the discussion and seem crucial for a successful Living Lab approach:
Short info on the sister projects
PrAEctiCe aims to facilitate the agroecological transition of farmers in East Africa by providing them with a novel Decision Support Tool (DST) that features an agroecology indicator set. The DST is designed to empower farmers to make informed decisions that can enhance their agroecological practices. To validate the effectiveness of this tool, PrAEctiCe has established three demonstration pilots (living labs) in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The data generated from these pilots will be used to validate the DST.
CIRAWA using four key agroecological approaches, the project aims to demonstrate in how working with nature can enhance ecosystem health and biodiversity while improving local livelihoods and climate resilience.
CANALLS aims to drive agroecological transitions in the humid tropics of Central and Eastern Africa via multi-actor transdisciplinary Agroecology Living Labs (ALLs) and provide holistic agroecological solutions that meet the challenges of local food systems.
NATAE employs a transdisciplinary Living Lab approach to identify, test and scale tailored agroecological practice combinations with local stakeholders in six Living Labs reflecting the diversity of agroecological zones in North Africa. Farmers and farm-scale agroecological practices are the starting point of NATAE Living Labs, which operate at the community level to enable dialogues and activities between key stakeholders necessary for an agroecological transition
Figure 1: Picture of the A0 poster. The discussion outcomes were structured using an A0 poster with a matrix representing the key activities for stakeholder engagement (inform, consult, involve, and collaborate) as rows and the key phases of a Living Lab lifecycle (planning/design, implementation, and evaluation) as columns. Participants noted down important elements, solutions and examples of activities that can be developed at each stage based on their experience