Saving Africa’s soils: science and technology for improved soil management in Africa

Soil fertility degradation has been described as the single most important constraint to food security in sub-Saharan Africa.

A paper published by the World Agroforestry Centre, entitled Combatting soil fertility degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa examines the scientific and technological requirements for redressing these failures and for scaling up the widespread adoption of the use of soil management practices to conquer both the yield gap and environmental damage. The paper discusses the state of soil fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa and its relationship with declining crop yields.

Authors: M., J. Swift; K., D. Shepherd; International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAD); NEPAD; Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, Kenya