Restoring and maintaining the productivity of West African soils: key to sustainable development

This report highlights the alarming situation as to low soil fertility and its continued decline in West Africa. Through literature review, a description is given of farming systems and soil fertility in the three major agro-ecological zones: the Equatorial Forest Zone, the Guinea Savanna Zone, and the Sahel-Sudan Zone. Next, the socio-economic and policy environment is depicted, both at macro-level and at farm household level. A framework is provided that may help in setting priorities for future interventions, based on policies and technologies that are potentially available to improve crop and livestock productivity and to conserve the natural resources base

Turning the tide

An overview is given of agricultural and demographic development in West Africa over the past decades. It is argued that the alarming situation justifies increased international attention for this poorly endowed part of the world, where people face increasingly harsh living conditions. The reader is then introduced to the structure of the rest of the report

Restoring and maintaining the productivity of West African soils: key to sustainable development

This report highlights the alarming situation as to low soil fertility and its continued decline in West Africa. Through literature review, a description is given of farming systems and soil fertility in the three major agro-ecological zones: the Equatorial Forest Zone, the Guinea Savanna Zone, and the Sahel-Sudan Zone. Next, the socio-economic and policy environment is depicted, both at macro-level and at farm household level. A framework is provided that may help in setting priorities for future interventions, based on policies and technologies that are potentially available to improve crop and livestock productivity and to conserve the natural resources base

Fertilizer management strategies for legume based croping systems in the West African semiarid tropics

A major constraint the smallholder farmer faces in the West African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) is the low productivity of soils, which is often combined with land and labor shortage, caused in part by low productivity of labor, lack of cash resources, and limited access to credit. Groundnut and cowpea are two of the predominant grain legumes in the WASAT; they are important components of the mainly cereal-based cropping system, the most important cereals being pearl millet and sorghum. Production of these legumes is low and unstable because of the lack of adaptable cultivars with some resistance to the major biotic and abiotic stress factors, inherent low fertility of soils, uncertain rainfall distribution, and the short duration of the growing season. A current review of literature reveals that nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and molybdenum (Mo) are the most important nutrients limiting legume production in the WASAT. Improvement of legume-based production systems will depend on amelioration of the low soil fertility, use of appropriate fertilizers, improved cultural practices, and use of appropriate cultivars. This chapter discusses these aspects and highlights research findings at the ICRISAT Sahelian Center. Exxperiments on rotation of cereals with groundnut and cowpea are demonstrating that it is possible to intensify and sustain the cereal-legume-based cropping systems in this drought-prone region