IFDC-Africa has proven capacities in key research and development areas.

Technology Development and Transfer

• Develops and transfers integrated soil fertility management techniques and complementary practices suitable to specific agroecological and socioeconomic conditions to ensure sustainable agricultural growth;
   
• Assists in identifying and alleviating socioeconomic, institutional and policy constraints on the adoption of improved soil fertility management techniques with emphasis on gender issues;
   
• Assesses the economics of fertilizer use to elaborate appropriate recommendations for optimizing farmers’ investments in soil fertility improvement.

Farmers’ Organizations and Private Sector

• Helps develop private dealers and dealers' networks to improve farmers' access to production inputs;
   
• Provides support for rural community projects through strengthening farmers' organizations, credit structures, and trade associations;
   
• Reinforces private sector associations and farmers' organizations to increase their influence in dialogues and cooperation among each other and with the public sector.

Policy Development

• Conducts country studies on the agricultural inputs sector;
   
• Provides market intelligence and fertilizer quality control services;
   
• Helps governments, private sector and farmers' organizations in designing and implementing enabling policies that encourage the private sector to invest in agricultural markets and farmers to invest in soil fertility improvement;
   
• Assists in designing national strategy and action plans for soil fertility improvement;
   
• Supports regional organizations in designing common agricultural and input marketing policies.

Development of Forecasting and Decision-Making Tools

• Assists in producing reliable crop production forecasts to support the development of efficient agricultural policies through computer simulation of plant growth and responses to management practices;
    
• Develops computer-based decision support systems that synthesize available knowledge and information, and are compatible with agroecological conditions and socioeconomic environments, and then makes them accessible to decision makers in directly usable forms. Available systems, in different stages of development, concern the use of fertilizers, phosphate rock and leguminous species, and the formulation of more sustainable production systems.

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