AfSIS Phase II To Promote New Methods In Agriculture, Soil Mgt

 Soil Mgt

The soil disposition of an environment can make or mar the efforts of a farmer, hence the efforts of the government, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to review the African Soil Information System towards achieving reliable soil information, Ruth Tene Natsa writes.


Recently, stakeholders met to review the African Soil Information System/Nigerian Soil Information System (AfSIS/NiSIS) work plan in pursuance of the AfSIS Phase II in which Nigeria alongside Ghana, Tanzania and Ethiopia are participants.

Giving an overview of the project, the adviser on African Soil, Bruce Scott, recalled that the Phase I of the project began in October 1, 2012, while the second phase began in January 2015.

He said, “The objective  of the second phase of the project is improving agricultural decision making, the productivity, profitability and sustainability of innovative IT-based technologies, products and services related to collecting, creating, analysing, interpreting, delivering and acting.”

He added that this is achievable through the four work-streams which include the development of soil and landscape information systems and core data, protocols and tools required at the country and continental levels, development of agricultural decision support applications that add value and inform decision making at multiple levels, from national and regional policy formation to farm-level land management, and institutionalisation and capacity strengthening to develop robust national soil.

Speaking on the readiness of Nigeria to embrace the new technology, he was optimistic that the nation’s scientific and professional community was ready to embrace it for the purposes of  soil improvement.

“I think Africa is preparing itself. These are new IT-based technologies that we are developing, and the scientific and professional  community is very embracing of new approaches to deal with intractical problems such as soil fertility. So across the continent we have been incredibly encouraged by the openness  and desires to embrace issues such as soil fertility,” Scott said.

He maintained that through data collection and analysis, information provided can be used to determine the decision making processes of the AfSIS/ NiSIS users.

“We are collecting and analysing data and making decisions, and the success will be when they are able to use the information as a way of improving their decision making, such as on fertiliser application, but that can only be done if there is a quick predictive capability to understand what is in the soil.

“For 100 years soil scientists have depended on wet chemistry analysis which takes time and there are always calibration issues. These current  IT-based technologies would predict the soil within a second range and in seconds,” he said.

He maintained, however, that despite the successes the project was still challenged by incomplete and obsolete knowledge of the African soil,  limited use of scientific evidence about the condition of African  soils and landscapes, and the inadequacy of agricultural decision-making processes at the farm levels.

In his welcome address, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Shehu Usman Ahmed, who was represented by the director, Agricultural Land and Climate Change, Mr Sunday Edibo,  said  that the AfSIS Phase II intends to promote the application of new methods in agriculture and soil management to reliable soil information system.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day workshop in Abuja on Wednesday, he noted that the Phase II of the project was also aimed at improving soil information system, soil management by stakeholders and ensuring that decision support systems about soils are used by service providers and extension workers while incorporating  and adopting options being used by farmers.

 He said that to this effect, the project in Phase I had shown relevance through its vision for food security, poverty alleviation and livelihood improvement, placing considerable emphasis on the sustainable use of the African soil resource base.

Edibo was positive that the workshop will further create awareness and acquaint users on the current status of the AfSIS mission and to adopt appropriate strategies that would ensure a hunger-free African population.

Meanwhile, speaking on the readiness of Nigeria to new soil technology, the president, Soil Science Society of Nigeria, Professor Victor Chude, said that Nigeria is ready to take advantage of the present technology for soil development. He assured that the AfSIS is going to bring on board modern methods of evaluating, real time, the properties on the basis of which fertiliser use is made more proficient.