New Soil Fertility Consortium:
Can Southern African Farmers
Feed Families from Depleted Soils?
This
multi-partner, multi-donor effort signals the renewed intent of both regional
and external experts to address the low fertility status of southern Africa’s
soils, which on a daily basis surpasses drought in keeping smallholder
farmers in poverty and harvests of hunger.
The Soil Fertility Consortium for Southern Africa was launched in 2004 with a series of planning events geared to attract new partners, prioritize activities, and develop proposals for action in 2005. The Consortium builds on the efforts of the Soil Fertility Management and Policy Network for Maize-based Farming Systems in Southern Africa (Soil Fert Net), which for nine years led the way in developing and promoting farmer access to better practices for managing poor soils.
Poor Soils: Harvesting Hunger
The region’s old, depleted topsoils and the high cost of fertilizer combine to create what CIMMYT agronomist and former Soil Fert Net coordinator, Steve Waddington, calls “the most widespread biophysical constraint to crop productivity and food security in the region.” With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the network developed recommendations on the use of mineral fertilizer, soil enriching plants and crop rotations, and intercropping schemes, to name a few. Soil Fert Net certainly had its strengths, says CIMMYT economist Mulugetta Mekuria, but it also had some weaknesses. “We had plenty of achievements on the research side, but less impact at the crop system level,” he observes. “In addition, Soil Fert Net often lacked the collective muscle to maximize donor support or scale-up activities.”
Filling the Gaps in Soil Fertility
Mekuria says the new Consortium will identify gaps in research, prioritize needs, and focus on making field-level impacts. The Consortium will also help coordinate donor support for soil fertility research and direct resources at specific problems. Themes identified during initial planning meetings include the following:
- Characterization of soil fertility problems.
- Identification of target farming systems and farmer groups.
- Research on soil fertility processes.
- Technology adaptation and integration into farming systems.
- Scaling up, scaling out and strengthening linkages with markets.
- Fertilizer market development.
- Regional capacity building in soil fertility management and policy.
Management and national stakeholder meetings have already been held, and a workshop on geographic information systems and regional stakeholders meeting is planned for late 2004.
Regionwide Partnerships Pool Expertise
The Consortium, which has strong support from the Rockefeller
Foundation, comprises the national
agricultural research systems of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe;
CIMMYT, ICRISAT, the World Agroforestry Center, and CIAT; several soil
fertility research and development institutions; universities; farmer
associations; non-governmental organizations; and private fertilizer producers
and suppliers.
“The Consortium creates a pool of expertise to draw on in various ways and provides access to information and resources,” says Paul Mapfumo, a lecturer in soil science at the University of Zimbabwe and member of the Consortium’s interim coordinating unit. As an example, Mapfumo says his graduate students would be eager to tackle Consortium work as part of their studies, and useful findings could be tested and promoted through farmer field schools run by the University. “In addition, once students move ahead in their soil science and agronomic studies, there is clout to mount more advanced courses, which in turn supports other agriculture programs and strengthens the University,” according to Mapfumo. “This provides wider scope and greater credibility when writing grants, especially under the auspices of the Consortium.”
Moses Mwale, Chief Agricultural Research Officer of the Soils and Water Research Branch of the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), echoes those thoughts. “The Consortium will provide a platform that offers synergies and complementarities that partners can easily tap into. Its approach will promote better connections among soil fertility management specialists at the local, national, and regional levels, who would get much-needed technical backstopping from the international centers and advanced research institutes.”
For further information: s.waddington@cgiar.org
Back to Contents
January, 2005