The second phase of the collaborative research center (CRC) Future Rural Africa has started, including the project A01 Future Carbon Storage with participation from our group. A first trip to our new study region in Zambia was used to meet in person with our new collaboration partners at University of Zambia (UNZA) & Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) and familiarize with the envisioned study site. Interesting cross-border comparisons will be possible once the existing data set from 1st phase in north-eastern Namibia will be complemented by a dataset from south-western Zambia.