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Projects
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Spatial and temporal variation of soil nutrient stocks and management in sub-Saharan African farming systems
Objectives
Soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is severely at stake, and is now regarded as one of the major survival issues in the region. The major goal of the VARINUTS project is to make a significant contribution to the understanding and improvement of soil fertility management in two of sub-Saharan Africa's major agro-ecological zones, i.e. the East African Highlands (Kenya) and the West African Savannah (Burkina Faso).
The general objectives of the project are to study variation in space and time of soil nutrient stocks at farm level, the possible role of integrated nutrient management (INM) systems in reversing present trends of nutrient depletion, and the aggregation of farm-level data to higher administrative and policy levels.
Specific objectives
Spatial variation: measure natural and man-induced spatial variation of soil nutrient stocks at farm level to achieve a better quantitative understanding of spatial variati-on of soil fertility.
Temporal variation: measure and estimate the major nutrient flows at farm level as a means to describe current farm nutrient management.
Integrated Nutrient Management: study, compare and classify prevailing INM practices in order to judge the extent to which judicious manipu-lation of spatial fertility differen-ces and nutrient flows can improve the ecological and economic sustainability of farming systems.
Aggregation and upscaling: develop guidelines to aggregate research data obtained in objectives 1-3 to higher administrative levels; determine the implications of uncertainty for model outcomes and see what lessons can be learned from long term soil-fertility experiments.
Outreach: organise workshops and field days for the different stakeholders in agriculture and natural resource management; publish research results in (inter)national journals and at conferences.
Project website
Visit the VARINUTS project site.
Duration
1997 - 1999
Research areas
Embu district in Kenya
Manga and Zoundwéogo province in Burkina Faso
Partners
Alterra, CIRAD, KARI, Institut d'Études et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA),NAGREF.
Donors
This project is funded by the European Union under the INCO-DEV program and co-sponored by the DLO Research Programme 'International Cooperation' (DLO-IC) of the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries.
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