The project will develop a decision framework that will build on past experimental data (i.e., fertilizer response trials, integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) field trials) and new ISFM experimental trials in selected sentinel sites. Legacy data from field trials throughout Africa will initially be used to identify the key factors that determine crop responses to various soil management practices and systems. New experimental trials will be established in selected sentinel sites in four countries (Malawi, Mali, Nigeria and Tanzania; for Kenya we will use existing ongoing trials) to test and to document responses to locally adapted soil management recommendations.

We will work with national research and extension services to facilitate the generation of spatially explicit soil management recommendations. In selected sentinel sites special attention will be given to key socio-economic determinants (e.g. gender and market determinants) for adoption of ISFM technologies. The results of the analyses will be used to formulate decision criteria for recommending specific ISFM management practices to address soil productivity and soil health related problems that take account of the local and regional context. We will define the socio-economic and environmental conditions that apply to particular recommendations (i.e. application domains) and map these relative to digital soil maps, environmental factors and socioeconomic data. Household profiling is done as part of the sentinel site characterization and soil health diagnoses. In case female headed households constitute a considerable percentage of the households in the selected sites, this group will be targeted specifically in considering possible interventions; that means the project will consider this situation in the design of the field trials and in the formulation of the soil and land management recommendations. Cultural and religious customs will also be considered in relation to gender.