Across Africa, a transition towards sustainable smallholder farming systems is urgently needed. Yet, climate, demographic and market drivers create uncertainty and stakeholders diverge on the desired future and how to get there. Here, we draw lessons from participatory scenario analyses across contrasting regions. We aimed to explore scenarios with local actors, based on a range of sustainability indicators, and to identify the required policy and agricultural interventions to underpin the transition towards sustainable farming systems. Three case studies included a dryland, sub-humid and highland zone in Zimbabwe, Mali and Uganda, respectively. Scenarios were co-constructed in iterative processes with diverse actors based on the major drivers. First, future desired states 20-30 years ahead were envisioned with stakeholders. Next, researchers used integrated farm-level modelling to quantify sustainability indicators encompassing agricultural productivity, food security, income, nutrient balances, greenhouse gas emissions and labour constraints. We assessed distributional effects based on socio-economic data from household surveys covering entire farm populations. Finally, modelling results were discussed with stakeholders to identify interventions enabling the transitions. Scenarios differed across cases, but business-as-usual always decreased performance across sustainability domains as climate change and demographic growth resulted in less food and income per capita. Technological (e.g. improved varieties) or farm management (e.g. crop-livestock integration) improvements alone were insufficient to lift farmers out of poverty and create resilience. Drastic improvements in soil fertility and pest and disease management were required to narrow yield gaps and larger cropland and herd size were needed for tangible improvements in household income and food security. Stakeholders agreed that these transitions required off-farm employment combined with family planning, be