Sahel International Journal of Agriculture and Food Security

The Sahel International Journal of Agriculture and Food Security (SIJAFS) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal publishing rigorous and policy-relevant research across agricultural sciences, food systems, nutrition and rural development. The journal provides a platform for scientists, scholars, policymakers and practitioners to advance productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable agriculture and to strengthen food and nutrition security.

SIJAFS welcomes theoretically informed, methodologically sound and ethically conducted research from all regions of the world. It has a particular interest in Africa and the Sahel, including scholarship that places experiences from these regions in comparative and global perspective. The journal does not privilege any country, institution, methodological tradition or political position.

About the Journal

SIJAFS is an interdisciplinary scholarly journal established to advance research and informed debate on agricultural production, food availability, food access, nutrition, natural-resource stewardship and resilient rural livelihoods. It publishes work that generates scientific evidence, evaluates technologies and interventions, develops and tests theory, improves research methods and translates findings into credible lessons for policy and practice.

Food-security challenges cross disciplinary and territorial boundaries. SIJAFS therefore welcomes contributions from crop and soil science, animal science, fisheries, forestry, food science, nutrition, agricultural economics, extension, rural sociology, environmental science, biotechnology, engineering, public health and related fields. The journal values methodological pluralism: field and laboratory experiments, observational studies, surveys, modelling, geospatial analysis, qualitative inquiry, mixed methods and participatory research are considered when the chosen approach is appropriate, transparent and rigorously applied.

Although SIJAFS has a distinctive commitment to research concerning Africa and the Sahel, its remit is global. The journal encourages North–South, South–South and cross-regional scholarship and seeks to counter the marginalisation of knowledge produced in developing and conflict-affected settings. Regional relevance alone, however, is not sufficient for publication. Every article must articulate a clear research problem, engage the relevant literature, employ a defensible method and make a contribution that travels beyond the immediate case.

Ownership, Management and Editorial Independence

SIJAFS is owned and published by Sahel Academic Publishing Ltd. The publisher provides administrative, production and technical support but does not determine the conclusions of articles or interfere with individual editorial decisions. The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility for the journal’s scholarly content and acts through an Editorial Board whose members are selected for relevant expertise, integrity and diversity. Commercial considerations, advertising, sponsorship and institutional relationships shall not influence editorial decisions.

Aim and Editorial Mission

SIJAFS aims to be a trusted international forum for original research and critical scholarship that advances knowledge, policy and practice in agriculture, food systems and food security. Its editorial mission is to publish work that is conceptually clear, empirically credible, ethically responsible, socially relevant and accessible to both scholarly and policy audiences.

Objectives

SIJAFS seeks to:

1. publish original scientific, empirical, theoretical and methodological contributions in agriculture and food security;
2. deepen understanding of agricultural production, food systems, nutrition, markets, institutions and rural livelihoods;
3. connect scholarly inquiry with consequential problems of hunger, malnutrition, low productivity, climate risk, resource degradation and unequal access to food;
4. encourage comparative, interdisciplinary and context-sensitive research;
5. strengthen the international visibility of high-quality scholarship from Africa, the Sahel and other underrepresented regions;
6. facilitate responsible knowledge exchange among researchers, policymakers, practitioners and civil society;
7. advance transparent, reproducible and ethically sound research practices; and
8. uphold editorial independence, procedural fairness and the integrity of the scholarly record.

Scope

SIJAFS considers manuscripts that make a substantive contribution within one or more of the following areas:

Crop Science, Agronomy and Plant Health

Crop production; plant breeding and genetics; seed science; crop physiology; horticulture; agroecology; cropping systems; weed science; plant pathology; entomology; integrated pest management; indigenous crops; biotechnology; and sustainable intensification.

Soil, Water and Natural-Resource Management

Soil fertility and conservation; land degradation; irrigation; agricultural water management; watershed management; agroforestry; rangelands; biodiversity; ecosystem services; land-use change; remote sensing; and sustainable management of agricultural landscapes.

Animal, Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences

Livestock production; animal nutrition and health; breeding and genetics; veterinary public health; pastoral systems; poultry; dairy; fisheries; aquaculture; feed resources; animal welfare; zoonoses; and sustainable management of aquatic and animal resources.

Food Science, Nutrition and Safety

Food processing and preservation; food chemistry; post-harvest management; food quality and safety; food microbiology; storage; value addition; human nutrition; maternal and child nutrition; dietary diversity; food fortification; functional foods; foodborne disease; and consumer behaviour.

Food Security, Livelihoods and Rural Development

Food availability, access, utilisation and stability; household food security; poverty; rural livelihoods; gender and youth; migration and displacement; humanitarian food assistance; resilience; social protection; farmer organisations; conflict-sensitive agriculture; and inclusive rural transformation.

Agricultural Economics, Markets and Value Chains

Farm productivity and efficiency; agricultural markets; value-chain development; price transmission; agricultural trade; agribusiness; entrepreneurship; land and labour markets; agricultural finance and insurance; adoption of technology; impact evaluation; and the economics of food and nutrition policies.

Climate Change, Environment and Sustainable Agriculture

Climate-smart agriculture; climate adaptation and mitigation; drought and flood risk; greenhouse-gas emissions; renewable energy in agriculture; conservation agriculture; circular bioeconomy; waste reduction; sustainable food systems; and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

Agricultural Extension, Innovation and Policy

Extension systems; farmer education; indigenous knowledge; participatory research; digital agriculture; precision farming; mechanisation; agricultural engineering; innovation systems; research–extension linkages; agricultural institutions; governance; policy design; programme evaluation; and public investment in agriculture.

Research Methods, Data and Measurement

Field and laboratory experimental design; on-farm trials; epidemiology; survey methods; food-security and nutrition measurement; impact evaluation; agricultural modelling; geospatial analysis; remote sensing; qualitative and participatory methods; systematic reviews; big data; reproducible research; and methodological innovations relevant to agriculture and food systems.

Submissions that are mainly descriptive, lack a clear theoretical or policy contribution, use methods that do not support their claims, or fall outside the journal’s remit may be declined without external review.

Article Types

*Word limits normally include notes but exclude the abstract, references, tables, figures and online supplementary material. Editors may approve exceptions where justified.

Why Publish with SIJAFS?

• International and interdisciplinary readership.
• Double-anonymised peer review by subject specialists.
• Open access to the version of record immediately upon publication.
• Transparent editorial, ethics and post-publication policies.
• Particular visibility for robust scholarship from Africa and other underrepresented research settings.
• Persistent article identification and long-term digital preservation.

Journal at a Glance

Author Guidelines

General Requirements

Submissions must be original, within scope, written in clear English and not under consideration by another journal. Manuscripts should present a defined problem, an explicit contribution, an appropriate research design, transparent analysis and conclusions proportionate to the evidence. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material.

Submission Files

Authors should provide:

• a title page containing the article title, author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs where available, corresponding-author details, acknowledgements, funding, competing interests and author-contribution statement;
• an anonymised manuscript without identifying information;
• editable tables and publication-quality figure files;
• supplementary files, instruments, protocols, data or code where relevant;
• ethics approval and consent information where applicable; and
• a cover letter explaining the manuscript’s fit and contribution and confirming compliance with journal policies.

Manuscript Structure

Original Research Articles should normally include:

1. concise and informative title;
2. structured abstract of 200–300 words (background/purpose, methods, results and conclusion);
3. four to seven keywords;
4. introduction establishing the problem, gap, contribution and research objective;
5. literature review and, where appropriate, theoretical or conceptual framework;
6. methodology, including study location, materials, sampling or experimental design, treatments, measurements, laboratory or analytical procedures and statistical analysis;
7. results, including relevant diagnostic, sensitivity and robustness analyses;
8. discussion that interprets findings in relation to previous evidence and the relevant biological, environmental, nutritional, socioeconomic or policy context;
9. conclusion stating the contribution, policy implications, limitations and priorities for future research;
10. required declarations; and
11. references and any supplementary data, instruments or code.

Alternative structures are acceptable for qualitative, historical, theoretical, legal and other traditions when they fit disciplinary conventions and support a clear argument.

Style and Presentation

• Use British English consistently, except in quotations and official titles.
• Prepare text in an editable Word-compatible format, with continuous page and line numbering.
• Define abbreviations at first use and use them sparingly.
• Report dates, currencies, units, statistical symbols and decimal places consistently.
• Use SI units and internationally accepted scientific names and nomenclature consistently.
• Identify crop varieties, animal breeds, biological materials, study sites and data sources precisely.
• State the software and version used for empirical analysis where relevant.
• Report coefficients, uncertainty measures, sample sizes and exact probability values wherever appropriate.
• Identify tables and figures in numerical order and cite each in the text.
• Provide informative titles, notes, sources and accessible descriptions where needed.
• Avoid unnecessary duplication, rhetorical overstatement and claims of causality unsupported by the research design.
• Use inclusive, respectful and non-stigmatising language.

Referencing

SIJAFS uses APA Style, 7th edition. Authors must ensure that every in-text citation appears in the reference list and every listed reference is cited. Include DOIs as https://doi.org/… links where available. References must be accurate and should prioritise original sources. Fabricated, irrelevant or citation-manipulated references constitute misconduct.

Required Declarations for Published Articles

Every article should carry the following headings, using “Not applicable” or “None declared” where appropriate:

• Ethics approval and consent to participate
• Consent for publication
• Competing interests
• Funding
• Author contributions
• Acknowledgements
• Data availability
• Materials and code availability
• Preregistration or protocol registration
• Use of artificial intelligence tools

Submission Checklist

Before submitting, the corresponding author should confirm that:

1. the manuscript is original, within scope and not under consideration elsewhere;
2. all authors qualify for authorship, approved the manuscript and agreed to submission;
3. the review manuscript is anonymised and the title page is separate;
4. the abstract, keywords, main text, references, tables, figures and declarations are complete;
5. methods, ethics, consent and reporting-guideline requirements have been addressed;
6. data, code and materials are deposited or restrictions are explained in a Data Availability Statement;
7. funding, competing interests, related works, preprints and AI use are disclosed;
8. every citation and reference has been checked for accuracy and relevance;
9. permission has been obtained for third-party copyrighted material; and
10. all files are readable, editable where required and free of identifying metadata in the anonymised version.