2010 Progress Report: Soil Health Program for Farm Households in Africa

Grantee: The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

August 10, 2010

This grant had a delayed start date because of some early challenges outside of AGRA’s control, which set the project back by more than a year. While there is still no data to report because of the delays, we believe the project will reach its overall goal, though not within the initial time frame.

Making progress: After delays in 2008 because of post-election violence in Kenya and rising fuel costs, AGRA made progress in 2009, recruiting staff, developing business plans, and launching 36 soil health projects.

Mapping soil health: AGRA helped form a partnership of international and national soil researchers to produce a soil information map for sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of the African Soil Information Service project is to provide a fine-resolution, three-dimensional grid of the continent’s soil properties, including soil carbon and nutrient status. This information will be available for free, giving land users, scientists, and policy makers a valuable tool to make site-specific soil and fertilizer management recommendations.

Reaching out in 2009: AGRA funded more than 20 projects aimed at bringing the benefits of soil health innovation to African farmers. The projects promote awareness of improved seeds, fertilizers, and good agronomic practices through agricultural demonstrations, farmer training, and other activities in the farming communities. Fertilizer suppliers, seed companies, and financial institutions also participate in these events, providing opportunities for an exchange of knowledge between farmers and extension-research communities. To help spread this knowledge among farmers, AGRA is training 3,000 field-level staff to assist with agricultural extension activities.

Learning and sharing: In late 2009, AGRA began identifying farmers, scientists, government officials, fertilizer suppliers, and other partners to form country-level alliances to promote and exchange information about soil health. Eight such alliances had been formed at the end of June 2010. The remaining five will be formed by December 2010.

The next generation: AGRA is working with nine universities in Africa to promote graduate training in soil health. The goal is to train 120 masters and 50 doctoral students, half of them women. AGRA is also helping the universities train about 100 laboratory technicians so the students have the support they need to conduct research.

Learn more about this grant to AGRA.

Goal: To help 4.1 million small farm households increase their yields by 50 to 100 percent—and ultimately increase their incomes—by giving them the resources and training to manage their soil using the most advanced methods.

Selected Objectives:

Objective: Help farmers access affordable fertilizers that will help them increase their yields.

Target: 187,000 tons of fertilizer delivered to small farmers through wholesale and retail networks by December 2012.

Objective: Through training and demonstration projects, help farmers adopt Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) techniques on a large scale to increase their yields in an environmentally sustainable way.

Target: More than 4.1 million small farmers adopt ISFM practices on more than 6.3 million hectares of land by December 2012.

Objective: Work with governments and others to ensure policies enable small farmers to obtain affordable fertilizer and training and adopt soil management practices.

Target: Governments implement national policies for access to inputs and soil extension straining in countries targeted by AGRA.