Durable impact: SOR4D projects publish results

Two adult black soldier flies on the mesh of a love cage

04.11.2026Reading time: 3 min.

Four projects that received funding in the first phase of the SOR4D programme have achieved significant advances. Discover the impact they created:

How researchers are getting Ethiopia’s coffee ready for new EU rules

An agroforestry coffee landscape in Yirgacheffe Woreda, southern Ethiopia, where coffee grows under shade trees alongside fruit and spices © Photo: Desalew Getnet

The new EU Deforestation Regulation is raising the standards for coffee exports worldwide. This is having a particular impact on Ethiopia, where millions of people make a living from coffee cultivation. A research project led by the University of Bern is working with local partners to develop systems for proof of origin – so small-scale farmers can benefit from sustainable production as well.

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From restaurant waste to animal feed in six days

Two adult black soldier flies on the mesh of a love cage: The insects have nine days to mate and lay eggs. Their larvae become animal feed and fertiliser © Photo: Christian Heuss

In Jinja, where the White Nile flows out of Lake Victoria, larvae of the black soldier fly turn organic waste into animal feed and fertil iser. One tonne of restaurant scraps, a few million larvae, six days, and at the end a sack of fertiliser and a bucket of feed. Partners from research and practice in Switzer land, Uganda and Malawi are exploring whether this can become a business model that stands on its own in East Africa.

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From poison to biology: how nematodes could help Kenyan farmers defeat the fall armyworm

In the leaf axils sit the caterpillars of the fall armyworm: This pest damages plants and is a major risk for farmers in Kenya © Photo: Christian Heuss

Since 2016, the fall armyworm has been devouring maize fields across Africa – and it has become clear that the pest is no regional problem. Having spread from the Americas to Africa, it has continued across Asia and has recently been detected in southern Europe. In Kenya, smallholder farmers spray against it fortnightly – often with substances long banned in Switzerland, and without protective clothing. A Swiss–Kenyan research project is seeking a biological solution: a parasitic nematode that kills the pest from within.

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Learning from the rainforest: new approaches for West African cocoa

Field training on measuring greenhouse gas emissions

A scientist from ETH Zurich demonstrates the use of the static chamber method to partners from KNUST, the University of Ghana, OPC, and Sronko Farms in a field training © Photo: Christian Andres

In West Africa, cocoa is mainly grown in monocultures using synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. This is not sustainable: it leads to soil degradation and adds to the problem of resistance. Strategically planting trees to provide shade increases the resilience of cocoa farms and protects the farmers working the land. This is according to the initial findings of a Swiss–Ghanaian research project.

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