Building and Assessing Soil Health Across the CCRP Program
The National Semi Arid Resources Research Institute (NaSARRI) conducted participatory soil health assessments with farmers in Eastern Uganda using a soil toolkit by Smallholder Soil Health Assessment https://smallholder-sha.org/. This involved working directly with farmers to determine key soil health parameters including soil pH, phosphorus, particulate organic matter, macrofaunal, and soil texture in farmers’ fields without needing to collect samples for lab testing.
The in-situ participatory soil assessments led farmers to understand and quantify the health status of their soils. Results showed that soil pH was good but available phosphorus and particulate organic matter were orders of magnitude below the critical levels for good soil health. Particulate organic matter was at critical level in some districts and well below it in others. Farmers can use this information to select appropriate options and adapt them to their contexts in managing soil and Striga-infestation challenges in the region.
Resource Download:
soil-assessment-poster-2018_vanek (pdf)
Source:
Beatrice Sadina
Date:
12/14/2019