Duncan Sones
The Legume Alliance
Dannie Romney writes the second blog entry: At the Legume Alliance we are trying to get information about growing common beans into as many smallholder-farming households as possible. We are doing this in two ways. First using a wide range of media and second we are selecting media that will be accessed by every member […]
Read MoreOFRA: Visiting scientist opportunities
Linking Model Use with Spatial Information for Improved Extrapolation of Soil Management Information: Visiting scientist opportunities The project Optimizing Fertilizer Recommendations in Africa (OFRA) is developing the capacity for much enhanced farmer profitability resulting from fertilizer use. Decisions are made in consideration of financial, environmental, and cropping system aspects of the individual farmer’s context. OFRA is […]
Read MoreBean Thinking …
Dannie Romney writes the first Legume Alliance Blog entry: I am excited to share that for the 2015 planting-season, 10 organizations are harnessing their collective energies and knowledge to implement a scale-up campaign. We are calling the campaign Bean thinking… and we are calling the group of partners working on it the Tanzania Legume Alliance. […]
Read MoreTanzania legume campaign planned for 2015
“The next common bean planting-season in Tanzania will take place in October 2015, but it will be unlike any other,” explains Japhet Emmanuel of Farm Radio International. “This year a consortium of organizations is coming together to put in place a fully integrated campaign with a 16 week radio series at its core.” James Watiti of […]
Read MoreASHC website gets new tools section
‘The ASHC website is being overhauled to make it more user-friendly” noted James Watiti, from ASHC. He explains, a big commitment within ASHC is to support the development of ISFM materials using tools developed by the ASHC team and their partners. We have pulled all of these tools together into one section of the website.” […]
Read MoreOFRA team shares research protocol document
OFRA has been carrying out a series of trials to establish fertilizer response curves in different agro-ecological zones across 13 sub-Saharan countries. The trials have all be undertaken following a set of standard protocols. Martin Macharia explains: “Crop nutrient response functions for major food crops are essential to optimizing fertilizer recommendations for these crops. Having […]
Read MoreCropping guides get a boost
ASHC, together with IITA and other partners, has been working on an integrated soils fertility management (ISFM) banana/coffee systems cropping guide This manual, published in draft, is designed for use by the extension workers in advising farmers on various aspects related to coffee and banana farming systems. It is one of a series […]
Read MoreImproving information ISFM information flows
ASHC is working with the Royal Tropical Institute to carry out an information needs assessment in Tanzania and Ethiopia. Dannie Romney explains: “ASHC has a remit to develop actionable information on ISFM that will impact on smallholder farming-families. Part of our work is concerned with increasing understanding in the sector about how to achieve this, and as […]
Read MoreA one-page report of 4 years work …
The Africa Soil Health Consortium has been reflecting on what it has achieved to date. George Oduor said: “We want to find a unique and innovative way of summarising all we had achieved in phase 1. Our in-house design team came up with this graphic which is a great way to celebrate our progress […]
Read MoreOFRA Fertilizer calibration tool shared
Calibrating fertilizer application to ensure uniform application at the desired rate is difficult. The OFRA team has developed a tool for easy determination of the calibrated application for specific fertilizer type, rate and method of application. This a considerable help in producing fertilizer guidelines that are relevant to farmers, rather than the conventional kilograms per hectare […]
Read More