Blog SUSTLIVES: Growing tomorrow with the plants of the past

In the Sahel, each farming season is a gamble against drought and land degradation. SUSTLIVES offers an alternative by focusing on locally adapted varieties that have been passed down through generations. In 21 pilot villages—eleven in Burkina Faso and ten in Niger—“living labs” are established directly in farmers’ fields. 

Agronomists, seed custodian farmers and community organizations work together to assess the performance of specific neglected and underutilized species (NUS) including amaranth, bambara groundnut, cassava, fabirama, roselle, moringa, okra, and sweet potato. These species—ranging from legumes to tubers and leafy vegetables—are selected based on criteria such as drought tolerance, nutritional value, economic potential and cultural significance. 

When promising varieties are identified, communities establish local seed banks to ensure access to them. This participatory model strengthens food sovereignty: instead of relying on costly hybrid seeds, communities harness their own biodiversity and low-input farming practices. After three years, SUSTLIVES has shown that sustainable food security can grow from existing local resources—when these are both scientifically and socially recognized. 

Between February and May 2025, the Elim Evangelical School Complex in Niamey transformed into a true agroecological learning lab. 68 primary school students (33 girls and 35 boys) in CE2–CM1 classes took part in 12 workshops focused on these 'opportunity crops'. Held every Wednesday by the cultural NGO Forge Arts, in partnership with Association Watinoma, these sessions are part of the SUSTLIVES project’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness among young generations in the Sahel about the value of local food heritage. 

The schoolyard was converted into a micro-farm and became a hands-on learning space: sweet potato cuttings, moringa observations, compost production, food pyramid roleplays and botanical drawings. Each lesson combined nutrition and cultural knowledge, highlighting five key species from the project. At the same time, students conducted interviews in their communities to collect traditional recipes and ancestral knowledge about these foods, in preparation for a school contest combining live storytelling with artistic creation. 

The highlight was 'NUS Day' on May 10, 2025. In front of families, teachers and education officials, the students presented posters, statistics, and even original songs dedicated to NUS, followed by a tasting of dishes made from amaranth, roselle and sweet potato. 

This achievement is rooted in active pedagogy: students kept journals tracking plant growth, built real-life connections between science and everyday life, and a student-elected NUS council maintained the garden during the school holidays. All teaching materials (including guides, schedules, and evaluation forms) were shared with regional education authorities for wider use. 

The outreach strategy extends beyond the farms. Over forty community radio broadcasts—in Mooré, Zarma and French languages—share best practices in agroecology, share recipes based on opportunity crops, and inform listeners about access to microcredit. 

Creating strong markets for opportunity crops is just as important as growing them. In this regard, the SUSTLIVES project carries out a detailed mapping and assessment of every link in the value chain—production, storage, processing, and distribution—in close collaboration with local stakeholders. Participatory diagnostics highlight three main bottlenecks: inadequate post-harvest equipment, absence of formal quality standards, and limited access to credit. Explore detailed findings from participatory diagnostics conducted in Burkina Faso and Niger, as well as a manual developed for Rapid Market Assessments. 

To help bridge these gaps, SUSTLIVES launched a startup support program specifically for businesses working with opportunity crops. The program operates through two local incubators, one at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Burkina Faso and the other at Abdou Moumouni University in Niger. It holds open calls for applications and selects the most promising agro-entrepreneurs in two rounds. In each country, eight projects per round are shortlisted for incubation, where they receive business training, pitch coaching and mentoring. At the end of each round, four winners per country receive €3,000 and further support to scale their businesses. This targeted investment enables local innovators, especially women and youth, to turn opportunity into viable, market-ready products. For example, in Niger, Moringa Cubes offer natural bouillon cubes made from moringa leaves, while in Burkina Faso, Projet Vie Saine produces chips from sweet potato and amaranth. 

Combining strategic communication efforts with entrepreneurial support, the project demonstrates its capacity to transform opportunity crops into engines of local income, reduce reliance on imports, and foster youth-led rural entrepreneurship—key levers for building sustainable food sovereignty in the Sahel. 

To consolidate and sustain its achievements, SUSTLIVES is reinforcing both national and regional dialogue while leveraging existing policy frameworks to support the conservation, sustainable use, and better integration of opportunity crops into agricultural systems. In this context, the Alliance is spearheading the creation of a Working Group on African Opportunity Crops under the African Seed and Biotechnology Platform (ASBP).  

This multi-stakeholder platform will unite farmer organizations, research institutions, regulatory bodies and seed enterprises to foster dialogue, knowledge sharing and coordinated action on opportunity crops and seed systems across the continent. The Working Group is committed to integrating opportunity crops into national agricultural strategies, developing inclusive and sustainable seed policies, and enhancing capacity in biosafety, genetic resource management and agrobiodiversity.