PROJECT ASSESSMENTS - Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-income Countries - page 140

INMASP *
Integrated nutrient management to attain sustainable productivity increases in east
African farming systems
A) Project setting
In Africa soil fertility degradation is considered to be one of the major long-term
constraints to food security and environmental degradation. While formal agricultural
research has in the past generated a vast amount of knowledge and fundamental
insights in soil fertility aspects and ways to enhance it, application of these results
by farmers in the field have been below expectations, among others because the
prevailing extension approach did not allow farmers to assess them critically, adapt
them where necessary, and learn how to further develop them. Given the diversity
and variability of the environments of rainfed farming in Africa, farmers have
already a wide body of knowledge in addressing soil fertility. Research and develop-
ment should build upon these experiences and turn farmers into experts, capable of
decision making and undertaking actions which are (a) informed by principles and
methods and (b) aided by equipment and tools, which have been developed through
linkage to practice. To address similar shortcomings in extension work on Integrated
Pest Management (IPM) the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach was successfully
developed in Indonesia by FAO's IPM
programme in South East Asia. Whereas
IPM is about bugs, INM is about nutri-
ents. But that is only half the story. As
much as the bugs in IPM are an entry
point for a totally different approach to
innovation in small-scale irrigated rice
production, INM is an entry point for a
totally different approach to innovation
and development in African rainfed small-
holder production. It combines (a) a tech-
nical focus on a locally feasible sustainable
mix of nutrient management strategies, and (b) a developmental and institutional
focus on using farmer creativity in capturing local opportunity for improving the
productivity of farming.
The INMASP project embodies a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary
approach based on a network of nine partner institutions from Kenya, Uganda,
Ethiopia and Europe. The partners are drawn from local NGOs, national research
institutions, universities and farming communities of the three East African
* Questionnaire received 2006; Project leader A. De Jager (LEI)