Benin

Project overview

Benin faces significant challenges related to land degradation, biodiversity loss, climate change impacts, and food insecurity. Agriculture is central to livelihoods and the national economy, with around 70 per cent of the population depending on the sector. However, unsustainable practices in key staple crop systems are driving soil degradation, ecosystem loss, and declining productivity.

Maize and rice are two of the most important staple crops in Benin, underpinning food security, nutrition, and rural incomes. Yet their production systems are characterized by low productivity, land degradation, weak market access, and vulnerability to climate variability. Unsustainable practices such as slash-and-burn agriculture, overuse of chemical inputs, and expansion into sensitive ecosystems have increased environmental pressures, including impacts on wetlands, forests, and protected areas.

In response, the Government of Benin has identified the transformation of sustainable food systems as a national priority. The project supports this agenda by promoting agroecological practices, strengthening value chains, improving governance and market conditions, and enhancing resilience to climate change, while delivering global environmental benefits.

Read More on the Sustainable food systems for greater resilience and food and nutrition security in Benin

Our approach

The project promotes a holistic food systems approach that addresses production, landscapes, markets, and policies in an integrated way.

Activities focus on strengthening policy coherence and market instruments to support sustainable maize and rice value chains, while improving access to finance, markets, and services, particularly for smallholder farmers, women, and youth. The project supports the adoption of agroecological and climate-smart practices that restore soil health, reduce land degradation, protect biodiversity, and enhance resilience to climate variability.

Key actions include restoring degraded agricultural landscapes, improving farm and post-harvest practices, reducing pollution from chemical inputs, and strengthening value addition and processing. Capacity building, innovation, and knowledge sharing are central to the approach, enabling producers, institutions, and value chain actors to adopt and scale sustainable solutions.

Public sector engagement focuses on strengthening institutional coordination, regulatory frameworks, and planning tools to ensure that sustainable food systems are embedded in national and regional development strategies. The project also places strong emphasis on gender equality and social inclusion, promoting equitable access to resources, skills, finance, and economic opportunities.

Sites

The project is implemented in five target communes across Benin:

• Karimama and Malanville (Alibori Department)
• Glazoué (Collines Department)
• Kétou (Plateau Department)
• Aguégués (Ouémé Department)

These areas are among Benin’s land degradation hotspots and include landscapes that are closely connected to wetlands, forests, and other ecosystems of national and global importance