Resource limitations in Sahelian agriculture

In general, Africa has poor soils and unfavorable climates for agriculture. This is specially so in the Sahel of West Africa. Moreover. poor infrastructure means that fertilizer prices are higher in the Sahel than in Europe. Sahelian farmers have few incentives to maintain, let alone improve output. Nonetheless, the results of field experiments show that there are methods by which they could do this. in particular, by improving soil organic matter status, since this is often the principal way in which N, P and K are held in the soil. In the general absence of good policies to encourage fertility improvement, the Lome workshop set goals for national fertilizer plans. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.