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Soil
Fertility Management Programs
Integrated Intensification Program
The
Integrated Intensification Program focuses on
integrated soil fertility management technologies to
improve the economic feasibility of fertilizer use
in West Africa and to decrease its environmental
risks by increased use efficiency.
These
technologies integrate the use of soil amendments
and inorganic fertilizer and lead to increased
availability and accessibility of plant nutrients
due to improvement and maintenance of soil quality.
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Locally available
sources of organic matter are the main soil amendments. Their
availability and quality increase progressively because of the use
of inorganic fertilizers and the progressive improvement of
the soil organic matter status. “One-time” investments of phosphate
rock and lime can enhance the efficiency and profitability of
inorganic fertilizers and other external inputs. Such investments
will benefit not only farming communities but also society as a
whole. This implies cost sharing among all beneficiaries and firm
governmental commitment in the form of a national soil fertility
action plan for which support and expertise can be obtained through
IFDC. The development and promotion of integrated soil fertility
management technologies require the Integrated Intensification
Program to adapt fertilizer recommendations. A systems approach,
using modeling and simulations, is therefore a valuable tool. The
concerned research is demand driven. Experiments are conducted with
farmers’ participation on their own fields, which serve as open
classrooms and laboratories for testing and adapting technologies.
IFDC supports national agricultural research institutes, extension
services, and nongovernmental organizations in this approach.
Input Accessibility Program
The Input
Accessibility Program aims to support the development of integrated
soil fertility management
strategies at the regional level in West Africa. The program
explicitly focuses on the adoption process and
combines the participatory development of technological packages
with measures that facilitate institutional
change and, in particular, improve the linkages between smallholders
and input (including credit) and output
markets. IFDC works with national agricultural research and
extension services and nongovernmental organizations to implement
regional-level projects, based on the effective participation of the
key stakeholders, i.e., farmers, bankers, traders, and regional
policy makers. Preference is given to regions with comparative
advantages for intensive food and/or livestock production for the
local, regional, or international markets. The program develops
organizational and financial capacities within the farming
communities to handle problems related to input supply and the
production and marketing of agricultural produce, which are
instrumental in the transition to more productive and sustainable
agricultural production. IFDC recognizes the obvious need to enable
women who are the pillars of rural economies to participate in
development projects to solve their own problems and realize their
expectations. The intervention strategy of IFDC includes measures to
involve women farmers at all levels of project design and
implementation and to facilitate their access to knowledge,
technologies, production inputs, and markets.
Policy and Market Program
The Policy and Market
Program aims to promote the creation of favorable policy and
socioeconomic environments for the improvement of soil fertility in
sub-Saharan Africa. It undertakes activities covering the policy and
market development issues, which directly or indirectly influence
incentives to invest in soil fertility improvement. The policy
aspects cover general policy orientations of individual countries or
sub-regional groupings that affect decisions to invest in soil
fertility improvement. The market development aspects cover
activities related to private sector input dealers, farmers, and
their organizations. It thus facilitates dialogue among public
sector decision makers, farmers and their organizations and private
sector input dealers in an era when the state is no longer directly
involved in the procurement of inputs, production, processing, and
marketing of agricultural products. The program’s partners include
policymakers at the national and sub-regional levels, input dealer
or trade associations at the national or sub-regional levels, and
farmers’ organizations at the national or sub-regional levels. It
also collaborates with the network of market information systems in
the West African sub-region to develop an internet-based
agricultural market information system that serves policymakers,
farmers, and the private sector input dealers. The web site is
managed and used as the medium of exchange by the regional
association of agricultural input dealers that the program is
helping to organize.
The Policy and Market
Program has also provided training for leaders of several farmers’
organizations to strengthen their organizational and lobbying
capacity and to link them to input suppliers.
