Health, Water, Digital Technology: TSARA Tackling Africa’s Food Challenges Head-On

This article, originally published by INRAE on May 19, 2026, is available here. Thank you to the editorial team.

Child nutrition, the cold chain, water management, digital agriculture, and geospatial technology: these are all key issues at the heart of African food systems, and all areas of focus for TSARA, a research network bringing together some 40 institutions in Africa and Europe. Here is an overview of current and upcoming projects.

On a dirt road in Casamance, a truck loaded with mangoes is heading toward the market. Inside, a sensor reads 38°C at the center of the load. There are no apparent problems, yet part of the harvest will be lost. In Senegal, industry stakeholders estimate post-harvest losses for mangoes at between 20 and 30 percent; nearly 45 percent of all fruits and vegetables will never reach consumers—a massive waste that weighs heavily on producers’ incomes and local food security.

Yet some of these losses can be prevented through simple, research-guided adjustments. This is precisely the kind of knowledge that TSARA generates: solutions grounded in the realities of African regions. The initiative,launched in 2022 by INRAE, CIRAD, and 17 African partners—Transforming Food Systems and Agriculture through Research in Partnership with Africa—now brings together 38 institutions across the African continent and Europe around nine themes: agroecology, water, soils, agroforestry, livestock, nutrition, One Health, labor, and digital technology.

No more losing mangoes before they reach the market

TheAFRICOLD project, led by INRAE (FRISE unit), Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, focuses on three strategic and vulnerable crop sectors: mangoes and carrots in Senegal, and avocados in Tanzania. “Our goal is to work with our African partners to identify the most useful, cost-effective, and realistic solutions for reducing losses and securing incomes. TSARA allows us to design research based on the actual constraints and priorities of local teams and sector stakeholders,” explains the project team.

The diagnosis seems obvious: if mangoes are being lost, it is due to a lack of refrigeration. However, field data challenges this diagnosis and reveals two realities, both marked by pressure from the mango fruit fly right at the farm level. In the export sector, the cold chain exists, but the fruit is rarely cooled before loading, which compromises its effectiveness. In the local sector, the problem lies elsewhere: a total lack of cold storage, saturated markets, transporters imposing their own terms… Two distinct diagnoses, therefore two types of solutions to be developed with local stakeholders. The next step: testing low-impact technologies under real-world conditions—lessons that are also useful for Europe, where climate change is increasingly exposing agricultural sectors to episodes of extreme heat.

In addition to post-harvest losses, there are two other challenges. The first is food-related: food security remains a major issue for the continent, as the FAO points out, influenced by climate, economic, and demographic changes. The second is nutritional: rapid urbanization and the rise of processed foods have transformed diets, leading to the coexistence of undernutrition, deficiencies, and overweight conditions within the same countries—and sometimes within the same households. In both cases, solutions cannot simply be imported; they depend on the ecological, economic, and cultural contexts in which they are rooted.

Promoting Local Legumes for Infant Nutrition

In Cameroon, as in many sub-Saharan African countries, child malnutrition remains a persistent problem. The porridges traditionally given to infants after six months of breastfeeding meet basic energy needs but are low in protein and deficient in essential amino acids and micronutrients. Although fortified infant cereals are available, they are often imported, expensive, or their distribution channels exclude a large proportion of rural and peri-urban families.

“The whole point of our project is to promote local legumes in order to produce nutritious and safe flours for young children that are suited to local uses, using simple and accessible processes.”

Faced with this twofold challenge, theMinimaLeg project focuseson locally available resources: local legumes, which are grown and consumed in Cameroon but about which little is known in terms of their diversity and uses. “The whole point of our project is to promote these local legumes in order to produce nutritious and safe flours for young children, adapted to local uses, through simple and accessible processes,” explains Adeline Boire, project leader at INRAE-UR BIA.

The TSARA-certified project brings together the INRAE BIA and IATE units and the IRD/CIRAD QUALISUD Joint Research Unit with universities in Yaoundé, Douala, and Bamenda, Cameroon. Implemented across five agroecological zones, it aims to systematically document, for the first time, the legumes cultivated and used in Cameroon, and then to link this diversity to local processing practices, the nutritional quality of the seeds, and low-impact methods such as hulling, grinding, or separation. 

The first results are expected in the summer of 2026. “This cross-examination of African and European contexts is undoubtedly one of the project’s most valuable contributions, as it opens up avenues for innovation that are not only technological but also organizational and cultural.” Within the framework of TSARA, this collaborative dynamic has helped expand scientific exchanges, particularly toward new questions surrounding the seed microbiome.