This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Poor soil keeps many farmers in Africa from growing good crops. Low
soil fertility has slowed agricultural production in parts of the
continent for years. The United Nations says that one-third of the
people south of the Sahara Desert suffer from hunger. But a newly announced project to develop soil maps and make them available on the Internet promises help for the situation.
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| Women farming in the Central African Republic |
A
nonprofit agency called the International Center for Tropical
Agriculture is working toward this goal. The organization will
describe the soil in forty-two nations in the sub-Saharan area.
When
the project is completed, farmers will be able to get information that
will help them decide what to plant and how to care for their land. In
the past, it often has been hard to get complete information about
current soil conditions. Maps for the purpose exist. But they are in
paper form and often not widely available.
The Tropical Soil
Biology and Fertility Institute in Nairobi, Kenya will manage the
project. Institute director Nteranya Sanginga says soil management in
sub-Saharan Africa must improve. He said the soil improvements are
needed “if we are to reduce poverty and feed growing populations.” He
said the improvements also are needed to fight the effects of climate
change.
Researchers from the African Soil Information Service will study earth samples and rate them.
The
researchers will also use satellite technology to image areas showing
the nutrients, moisture and organic content of the soil samples.
They
also will study chemical and physical properties of the soil samples
with a method called infrared spectroscopy. The method can quickly
judge the soil’s ability to hold water and absorb nutrients. Project
information manager Peter Okoth says a majority of farmers may have the
information on-line in three years.
The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa have given
eighteen million dollars to collect the information. The money will be
provided over four years. Project partners include the Earth Institute
at Columbia University in the United States.
The project for
sub-Saharan Africa is to be part of a worldwide soil-mapping project.
The international project has a Web site, www.globalsoilmap.net.
And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report written by Jerilyn Watson.
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture
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