Poor soil fertility combined with limited access to fertilizers, leading to soil depletion, causes serious challenges to agriculture in Soudanian zone of Burkina Faso. To face these challenges, this study aims at co-designing agroecological practices. It specifically assesses the agronomic performance of various legume-based diversification options for cropping systems, in both controlled and on-farm settings. We used an iterative approach following the Describe-Explain-Explore-Design (DEED) cycle to co-conceive, test, and co-evaluate agroecological options. We explored the use of farm typologies to distinguish farmers' differing levels of resource endowment and if that altered the suitability of the agro-ecological options. Based on observations from the experimental trial, farmers had the possibility to adapt a cropping system in their own field, and the same agronomic indicators were monitored. The Describe (diagnostics workshop), Explain (demonstration trial), Explore (co-evaluations) and Design (prototyping workshop) activities were conducted for three years, in 2021, 2022 and 2023 in two communities (Nagreonkoudogo and Tanvousse) of the semi-arid zone. The trials of the first year consisted of a randomized Fisher plot of six treatments with four repetitions. One additional treatment was added each year after the prototyping workshop, resulting in eight treatments for the third year. The treatments of the first year included sole cropped sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), sole cropped cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp), 2*2 lines sorghum-cowpea intercropping, traditional sorghum and cowpea intercropping (intra poquet intercropping), sole cropped Mucuna rajada and short fallow with crotalaria (Crotalaria retusa L.). The land equivalent ratio (LER), an indicator of the added value of intercropping over sole cropping was computed yearly. The results vary by year and across site The intercropping was not always beneficial over the three years in the two sites w