Intensification of smallholder agriculture has led to widespread soil degradation and a loss of soil organic matter (SOM) and the associated soil-based ecosystem services that support smallholder farmers around the globe. While a number of projects within the CCRP and beyond have promoted technologies that should benefit SOM and support soil quality in the long-term, few have adequately evaluated the impacts of promoted technologies on soils. Because SOM and the trade-offs that govern its management are closely linked with access to resources and socioeconomic well-being, SOM serves as a valuable indicator to assess the sustainability of different agroecological intensification options. Additionally, given soil’s importance to agricultural livelihoods across diverse contexts, soil quality and associated ecosystem services represent a cross-cutting theme for the entire CCRP program. Our project will enhance CCRP support for improved SOM management and address soil quality decline by focusing on three objectives that seek to integrate global, regional, and local scales:
Grant Aims:
Objectives:
Work with local collaborators across the CCRP to develop a global “toolkit” for agroecological approaches and indices for sustainable soil management, with particular emphasis on CCRP partners and projects.
Support and collaborate with local institutions to apply the toolkit and evaluate the local soil management innovations being promoted, understanding these within local contexts of farmer soil knowledge, residue availability, and implication for long-term SOM and soil quality.
Address key social and biophysical knowledge gaps surrounding trade-offs of residue management and SOM dynamics in smallholder systems to inform the efforts in Nos. 1 and 2 above via data gathering, model building, and experimentation across multiple smallholder contexts and scales.
A presentation made to the FRN working group about scientists’ and farmers’ assessments of soil health. It is widely acknowledged that farmers understand much about their soils. This ‘local soil knowledge’ ( LSK ) is often expressed in terms different from scientists’ soil knowledge ( SSK). Soil knowledge can be distinguished in 3 areas; this […]
Highlights: Soil tool kit pH, POXC and P correlated well with standard lab measures. Tool kit measures were able to predict maize yield as well as lab measures. Tool kit measured POM was higher after incorporation of L. purpureus residues. The tool kit can help guide soil health management in smallholder farmer contexts. Abstract Smallholder […]
Source: Blessing Nyamasoka-Magonziwa, Steven J. Vanek, John O. Ojiem, Steven J. Fonte
El conjunto de herramientas de salud del suelo reúne métodos simplificados para evaluar la salud del suelo a través de proyectos y redes que trabajan con pequeños agricultores. El sitio web del kit de herramientas describe protocolos para el pH del suelo, el carbono del suelo que es oxidable al permanganato (POXC o carbono activo), […]
Le kit pour la santé des sols rassemble des méthodes simplifiées pour évaluer la santé des sols dans le contexte de projets et de réseaux travaillant avec les petits agriculteurs. Le site Web du kit décrit les protocoles pour le pH du sol, le carbone du sol oxydable au permanganate (POXC ou carbone actif), la […]
The National Semi Arid Resources Research Institute (NaSARRI) conducted participatory soil health assessments with farmers in Eastern Uganda using a soil toolkit by Smallholder Soil Health Assessment https://smallholder-sha.org/. This involved working directly with farmers to determine key soil health parameters including soil pH, phosphorus, particulate organic matter, macrofaunal, and soil texture in farmers’ fields without […]
