by Benjamin Abugri & Charles Sanou
9 July 2026, Tamale, Ghana
The COINS project is holding a three-day engagement in Tamale, Ghana, bringing together farmers, researchers, extension actors, local authorities, members of the Participatory Learning Platform, and other stakeholders to reflect on project results and strengthen pathways for sustainable land management in smallholder farming systems.
The workshop is taking place at the University for Development Studies campus in Tamale as part of the final dissemination and closing activities of the COINS project – Co-developing Innovations for Sustainable Land Management in West African Smallholder Farming Systems. The project seeks to address land degradation and the challenges faced by smallholder crop-livestock farming systems in semi-arid West Africa through context-specific, scalable and climate-resilient sustainable intensification pathways.
Participants of the COINS workshop engage community members in Savelugu and Tolon on Integrated Soil Fertility Management and sustainable land management practices
The first two days of the engagement focused on community-level interactions in Savelugu and Tolon, where project teams engaged farmers and community members on Integrated Soil Fertility Management practices and related sustainable land management innovations. The field engagements provided an opportunity for community members to share their experiences, validate project messages and reflect on how the promoted practices respond to local farming realities.
Through these community visits, the COINS team created space for direct dialogue with farmers and local actors. Presentations, demonstrations and feedback sessions allowed participants to discuss lessons from the project, including the relevance, adoption and possible scaling of Integrated Soil Fertility Management approaches in the Northern Region.
On 9 July 2026, the engagement continued in a workshop setting at the UDS Guest House Conference Room. The session brought together members of the Participatory Learning Platform, consortium partners, researchers, extension officers, local authorities and other stakeholders for presentations and discussions on the project’s research findings. The day’s programme included an overview of the COINS project, presentations of key research results by consortium members, discussion of the synthesis report, a roundtable on project results, and a survey of participants’ views on Integrated Soil Fertility Management.
Stakeholders participate in the COINS wrap-up engagement and technical presentations at UDS, Tamale.
The Tamale workshop is expected to generate stakeholder feedback on the project’s findings, support validation of results, and contribute to discussions on post-project continuity and scaling of sustainable land management practices. It also provides a platform for strengthening collaboration among researchers, farmer groups, extension officers, government representatives and development partners.
COINS is implemented by a consortium of German and African institutions, with partners including the German Aerospace Center, WASCAL, CSIR-SARI, University of Bonn, University of Ghana, University of Hohenheim, Ruhr University Bochum, ZALF, UNU institutions, IPAR, MANOBI Africa and ACRE Africa. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space under the Sustainable Land Management in Sub-Saharan Africa initiative.
The workshop forms part of broader efforts to ensure that research findings are not only presented to stakeholders but are also validated, contextualised and translated into practical actions that can support resilient livelihoods, improved soil fertility and sustainable land governance in West African smallholder farming systems.
See more on the COINS Workshop in Tamale via: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCYPGw
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