By Anthony Muchoki=:
THE average small-holder farmer, comprising a majority of the 45 million-strong population in Tanzania, hardly knows anything about soil health, notes Mr. Mwadhini Myanza, Executive Director of the Morogoro-based civil society organisation ‘Irrigation Training & Economic Empowerment Organization (IRTECO).
This situation is replicated across Africa where, for many of the continent’s 54 countries assured food security is by far yet to be realized!
“Farmers whose soils are ‘old’ (‘tired’) – having been ‘overused’ for years – wonder about their diminishing farm yields despite the use of manure, fertilizers and improved seeds! More emphasis has been given to seeds and markets across the value chain, leaving out the all-important element: the soil,” Myanza laments.
He adds that, if the ‘soil health projects’ of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) reach the larger masses, that will be a game changer in the struggle for meaningful and sustainable food security.
However, he ruefully laments that farmers at the moment are left to manage soil on their own, using traditional knowledge that is more often than not outdated, and no longer works as desired due to many social and economic changes which continue to have considerable effect on our geography.
“We have too few soil scientists and agronomists in Tanzania, and these few cannot be expected to have a big impact. Moreover, the scientists have not been able to reach out to the masses and educate them on soil management if we are to have assured food security,” Myanza explains.
From another perspective, Mr. Austin T. Phiri, the Chief Agricultural Research Scientist at the Bvumbwe Agricultural Research Station in southern Malawi, is upbeat that things are changing for the better!
“There is hope for food security in Africa – and I am happy I have an opportunity to contribute towards the attainment,” Phiri enthuses.
An up-and-coming soil scientist, Phiri is aware that soil science is a discipline which is loathed even by researchers from other fields.
Apart from being the Chief Agricultural Research Scientist at Bvumbwe, he is also a beneficiary of AGRA’s project on Advancing Soil Health in Africa, a regional doctorate programme in Soil & Water Management, which is being executed by the Morogoro-based Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania’s only agriculture-oriented higher institution of learning.
It is notable that SUA is the only public agricultural University in Tanzania, and the only University that offers soil science as a discipline.
Mr. Phiri comments that, along the way, there were regrets on why he chose the path of soil science.
“There were moments when I wished I could have done other things,” he says. Luckily for him, though, his ongoing PhD studies have opened his eyes wider, and he is working pro-actively to influence agricultural policy in his motherland, Malawi.
“Soil science at the PhD-level has helped me out of the realm of regret,” he philosophizes. “Now I know that, apart from the vast opportunities available in this discipline, I have the opportunity to contribute towards the attainment of food security in Africa – which is a prime goal for the continent!”
Phiri explains that, for ages, the agricultural policy in Malawi has focused on small-holder subsistence production, and urgent changes are, therefore, necessary.
“Small-holder farmers need to move to commercial production,” he says, noting that restoring soil health will play a key role in that drive.
“Thanks to my PhD studies, I am able to broadly and deeply look at the situation in the agriculture sector. For Africa to move forward, there is a need for in-depth understanding of the issues that are standing in the way if sustainable solutions are to be generated. I guess the PhD studies have armed me with such acumen,” he says.
Developing the next generation of soil scientists and agronomists in Africa
Mr. Phiri is among the 20 PhD students in Soil & Water Management at SUA, thanks to a grant awarded by AGRA in 201O.
SUA is one of the two regional PHD hubs that AGRA has helped roll out PhD study programmes. The other is at KNUST in Kumasi, West Africa.
The group at SUA is drawn from from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda and Ethiopia. It is expected to have a huge impact in the participants’ respective home country.
Touted as the next generation of soil scientists and agronomists, their studies deviate from the norms of the aloof traditional soil scientist and agronomist.
“This programme brings in new kinds of competencies and skills: entrepreneurship; communication and writing skills; presentation skills; research methods; GIS and Remote sensing, among others,” notes Dr Marie Rarieya, AGRA’s Programme Officer, Education & Training Soil Health Programme (SHP).
“There is a huge need to increase agricultural productivity while nurturing soil health across Africa. SUA is helping to develop practical skills to address Africa’s soils and water management,” Dr Marie says.
A Senior Lecturer at SUA, Dr Abel Kaaya, is managing the project. Naturally, he is upbeat that “the programme is very helpful for agriculture development in sub-Saharan countries. It covers Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi.
“Mozambique was also targeted; but, unfortunately, we couldn’t get any candidate from there,” he says.
“In the programme, we are training the students in Soil & Water Management. We need to produce high quality PhD graduates who will manage agricultural research in their home countries.”
The programme will increase the number of research managers in agricultural fields from Universities and agricultural research centres to national Ministries of Agriculture. This comes in the backdrop where most people think that soil science subjects are ‘difficult subjects!’
How will the farmers benefit?
Dr Kaaya is of the view that the masses across the African Continent know little about soil science. This is despite the fact that we cannot do without the discipline if we are to enjoy food security.
“We expect the PhD candidates after their studies to solve soil-related problems in their countries, and produce some material caption – and even help farmers in managing the soil,” he says.
“The technical aspect of soil science must be done by experts (PhDs and Masters Degree students) who graduate from our Universities. But, they must incorporate farmers, or somehow involve them directly so that they can see the outcome,” he adds.
Because the PhD candidates at SUA are also trained in both communication and writing skills, it is hoped that they will present the outcome to farmers in a way they understand and can use via mass adoption.
Why is the project novel?
According to Dr Kaaya, PhD studies in most African Universities are mostly conducted by research only. In the AGRA-supported programme, the case is different.
“We have a PhD programme whereby, after one year of course work and examination, the students go out for their research in their home countries,” he says, adding that the purpose is to impact upon the students the need to translate the acquired textbook knowledge in a better way – and with a deeper understanding of the theoretical aspects of the soil.
“In addition, being a regional doctorate programme, we do have students’ supervision in their own home countries after completing their course work at SUA, supervised by professors and senior soil scientists – thereby solving problems in their own countries. In this, I am happy to say we have succeeded,” he remarks.
What does the project mean for SUA?
Before AGRA started the project at SUA, there were very few students coming in for PhD studies.
“With AGRA support, we have 20 PhD students within two years: quite a big increase in enrollment for SUA,” Dr Kaaya observes.
Also, AGRA has purchased some of the laboratory equipment in terms of capacity-building for conducting research at SUA. This has, in turn, increased the number of students’ enrollment at the Masters Degree level.
Furthermore, the project has made SUA assume a more ‘international face,’ with students coming in from across Africa.
AGRA has supported a number of laboratory technicians at SUA to train at Crop Nutritional Services in Nairobi. Dr Kaaya commented that the support had a big impact on productivity at the lab as the technicians’ ability to support students and lecturers increased tremendously.
For solving technical problems for which SUA does not have the requisite capacity, a grant from AGRA supporting Wageningen University in The Netherlands has made it possible for the latter to backstop research and teaching of the PhD programme.
“Lecturers from Wageningen come in and offer short-course training to the students… In fact, some of our students will be going to Wageningen, others to Copenhagen, where the students get exposed to knowledge from outside the region on how to conduct their research better,” Dr Kaaya annotates.
In mid-2013, about three of the PhD candidates attended a course titled ‘Plant nutrients in terrestrial ecosystems-2013’ in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Challenges and the way forward
The programme had set a number of applicants for eight target countries. According to Dr Kaaya, there were more female applicants from Kenya than from any other country!
The target was 50/50 female/male students. But, it was not possible to get enough number of females from the target countries.
For Mozambique, which was allocated three scholarships, there was not a single applicant for them despite many advertisements.
“There was no pool from which we could draw enough female candidates for the PhD programme. But, AGRA is working on this through its MSc Training Programme in Soil Science launched in nine Universities across eight AGRA focal countries.
“We are expecting a Masters Programme soon, whereby we want to get more females on it so that they can feed the pool from where we can readily pick PhD students. That way, the programme will be sustainable,” Dr Kaaya explains.
Already, SUA is training BSc students who major in Soil Science.
Concluding, Dr Kaaya says students of agriculture – especially soil science – are a major national resource in poverty alleviation and, as such, stakeholders must ensure they are put to use promptly.
According to the Tanzania Minister for Agriculture, Food Security & Cooperatives, Eng. Christopher Chiza, “AGRA’s projects in Tanzania are significant in the breadbasket areas.”
In that regard, the Ministry and the government at large would continue to work with the Alliance to support the envisaged Green Revolution in Tanzania.
End