Soil Fertility Management Technologies-Agronomic Impact: Agronomic Evaluation of GIF Technologies

In eastern Burkina Faso, as in the rest of the country and indeed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, increases in food production are linked far more to the expansion of cultivated land than to increases in crop productivity. Several technical, environmental, sociocultural, economic, institutional, and political constraints hinder agricultural development in the region. These include, among others, low soil fertility, ecosystem fragility, production's dependence on rainfall, the limited capacity of the rural workforce, the underdevelopment and degradation of rural infrastructure (dirt roads), and the weakness of research systems due, among other things, to: (i) a lack of infrastructure and equipment, (ii) inadequate training and extension services, and (iii) a lack of funding. The major challenge in this area lies in the sustainable and productive management of natural resources and soil fertility management based on the utilization of local resources (organic substrates and natural phosphates).