Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM)
Africa’s soils, like so many of its people, are hungry. Soil nutrient depletion and population increases have caused per capita food production to decrease over the past 30 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. African farmers have traditionally cleared land, grown crops for a few seasons and then moved on to clear more land. This practice left the abandoned soil fallow, allowing it to regain its fertility. But constant population growth now forces farmers to continually plant crops on the same land, “mining” the soil while giving no nutrients back. Soil fertility – the capacity of the soil to supply nutrients to a crop – is critical for smallholder farmers’ to feed themselves and increase their incomes.
Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) is the key to increasing agricultural productivity while protecting the environment and maintaining (or even enhancing) the soil resource base. ISFM strategies center on the combined use of mineral fertilizers and locally available organic amendments (crop residues, compost and green manure) to replenish lost soil nutrients. This improves both soil quality and the efficiency of fertilizers and other agricultural inputs (seeds, crop protection products and water). In addition, ISFM promotes improved crop management practices, measures to control erosion and leaching and techniques to improve soil organic matter maintenance.
Farmers who have adopted ISFM technologies have more than doubled their agricultural productivity and increased their farm-level incomes by 20 to 50 percent. The value:cost ratios of adopted ISFM options are well above 2.
ISFM is a key component of the CATALIST project. CATALIST is helping smallholder farmers in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda to increase food security, reduce poverty and improve regional collaboration to foster peace and security in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa. The region has the highest negative soil nutrient balance in the world; soil nutrient depletion is estimated at almost 100 kilograms per year per hectare of cropland.
ISFM was also a key component of the From Thousands to Millions (1000s+) project, which linked West African farmers to markets through expansion of the CASE approach. CASE combines ISFM and the development of competitive commodity chains (the path a good travels from producer to consumer). 1000s+ worked with more than 700,000 farmers in more than 200,000 households.
Photo Caption and Credit:
Farmers learning about ISFM in Rwanda. Photo by Toon Defoer