Sustainable Tropical Agriculture
Network to foster innovation and resilience in tropical farming.
Our Services
Project Cylce Management
Project proposal development, baseline and feasibiltiy studies, evaluations.
Training and Research Collaboration
Technical advice in natural resource protection, eco-friendly agri-value chains and SME development.
Policy Advocacy
Advocating for policies that support sustainable agricultural practices and tropical ecosystem preservation.
Connecting practitioners for a greener tomorrow
Sustainable Agriculture in the Tropics is a network of independent individuals committed to the environmentally sound use of natural resources. Its focus is on regenerative ecosystems and empowering grassroots organizations and individuals committed to low-emission or carbon-sequestering initiatives.
Team
Joachim Ballweg
Joachim has worked from 1994 to 2015 on long-term contracts for the German Development Service (DED) in Bolivia and Brazil, GIZ-CIM in Ethiopia, Welthungerhilfe (WHH) and the Austrian Federal Forest Association on a World Bank financed project in Sierra Leone.
He holds an M.Sc. in Agriculture Economics (UK) and an M.Sc. in Agriculture (Germany) and has developed numerous project proposals (EU, World Bank, WHH, DFID, BMZ, etc.) and conducted about 50 baseline surveys, feasibility studies and evaluations over the past 10 years. He is the founder of Sustainable Agriculture in the Tropics Network.
Michael D. Sallu
Michael is the founder and CEO of AFFA - Agroforestry Farmer Association Sierra Leone in 2008. He holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration.
While deeply rooted in the communities of southeastern Sierra Leone, Michael also connects local smallholder farmers with the global demand for tropical produce: as project manager of the AFFA Karma Drinks Project and as a tropical food value chain expert, exporting Robusta coffee beans and kola nuts from smallholder farmers to Europe and New Zealand.
Franz Möstl
Franz has worked for decades as a project manager and advisor in agriculture development projects in East Asia and West Africa.
Over the past 15 years, projects under his leadership have contributed significantly to the transformation of the cocoa and coffee sector in Sierra Leone toward certified and traceable value chains (funded by the EU, GIW and Welthungerhilfe).
Currently in semi-retirement, Franz works in evaluations and as a back-stopper with a strong sense of practicability and feasibility of project approaches.