Workshop on ISFM held in Ibadan

Participants at the workshop on ISFM

More than 30 researchers converged on the Conference Center of IITA Ibadan campus for a 3-day conference tagged: “Supporting soil health  consortia in West Africa: facilitating wider uptake of better adapted Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) practices with visible  positive impacts on rural livelihoods.”

The goal of the workshop is to improve agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers by promoting the uptake of appropriate ISFM technologies.

The event was declared open by Dr Ylva Hillbur, IITA DDG (Research), who  introduced participants to IITA’s ongoing research, mission, and  milestones achieved over the years as well as happenings across all  hubs.

Dr Marie Rarieya, AGRA Program Officer, Education and Training Soil Health Program (SHP) underscored the importance of soil health in the agricultural value chain, and attributed the low agric productivity in Africa to declining soil fertility.

 She noted that AGRA has taken a huge step in addressing this gap but pointed out that there has to be a consensus on goals and more concerted efforts by all stakeholders involved.

 “Research must be up scaled to meet up with the agricultural transformation in Africa and this can only be achieved through a   synergetic effort of all partners” she said.

The meeting was facilitated by Stefan Hauser (Root and Tuber Systems Agronomist) and Zoumana Bamba, IITA Head of Capacity Development.