The NWO-WOTRO funded Integrated Programme is carried out by a research consortium consisting of scientists from international research institutes and universities and national research institutes and ngo’s in Burkina Faso and Kenya. Programme coordinator is Prof. L. Brussaard of the Department of Soil Quality of Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
The overall objective of the research programme is to increase our understanding of the effects of agricultural management of maize- or sorghum based cropping systems on soil quality and nitrogen- and water use efficiency, emphasizing the role of soil macrofauna biodiversity1 across soil types and climates in East and West Africa.
The research takes place in different countries across the sub-humid–semi-arid agro-ecological zones of West and East Africa (Kenya, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Nigeria and Malawi). Our key strategy is the use of long-term agricultural field trials and interdisciplinary research activities at different scales. At the agro-ecological zone scale, we conduct a survey in 13 field trials with the objective to relate soil macrofauna biodiversity to environmental (including soil) variables and drivers across agro-ecological zones (semi-arid to sub-humid). At the cropping system scale, we investigate the biological, hydrological and biogeochemical aspects as a function of organic resource quality, mineral N use, crop rotation and soil tillage. At the microplot scale we investigate carbon and nitrogen dynamics using stable isotope studies in +/- macrofauna exclusion experiments.
An essential principle of the proposed research programme is the integration of scientific in- and outputs from 3 different disciplines, each corresponding with an individual research project: