Soils4Africa project is structured in seven work packages for efficient realisation of its objectives. The project consortium comprises organisations in Europe and Africa and is coordinated by the International Soil Reference and Information Center, ISRIC.
The project has implemented and monitored tasks through operational procedures and tools, various technical, operational and management meetings and consultations of consortium bodies and with the EU Project Officer. The project has designed and implements an adaptive communication strategy, including the development and maintenance of the project website through which the public can access project results and updates. The project also created social media platforms including a Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile, Facebook group, YouTube channel and newsletters to facilitate interaction with potential SIS users and the general public. This increased project awareness and generated useful feedback for the project activities.
A data management plan (DMP) and a plan for exploitation and dissemination of results (PEDR) have been developed and updated yearly in response to developments and feedback. The most recent versions are published on the project website www.soils4africa-h2020.eu. The project also completed necessary activities to ensure compliance of its activities with relevant ethics requirements and undertakes relevant update actions in this regard.
Relevant stakeholders in soil and land use sector across Africa were identified and contacted for contribution to the development of the Soil Information System. The stakeholders include researchers, farmers, planners, policy makers, private sector agencies, NPOs and NGOs. Information from the stakeholder interviews and discussions were used in defining use cases for the SIS. The project engaged identified stakeholder groups, under the umbrella of the LEAP4FNSSA and CAADP to discuss the strategies for embedding the SIS into the knowledge platform of the FNSSA for effective contribution sustainable agricultural intensification in Africa, and to provide information on the SIS to policymakers and high-level organs to gain their buy-in and endorsement for the SIS. A sustainability and funding strategy for the SIS has been developed, with information on a hosting plan for the SIS.
The project has made important steps towards the actual production of exploitable results with significant immediate or potential impact including a sampling design for representative soil sampling at a continental scale; a map of agricultural land in Africa, guidelines and protocols for field survey, and an innovative survey data management tool (SDMT) among others. The project outputs are accessible at: www.soils4africa-h2020.eu.
The design, formalization and training for the soil sampling campaign has increased African capacities to monitor soil condition, which can be applied at national and sub-national levels, using similar protocols. The significant progress made in the training and implementation of the soil sampling in RP3 contributes to this impact.
SIS development work has progressed significantly. On completion, the SIS will serve as a baseline assessment of soil conditions in Africa’s agricultural land and should support sustainable intensification of agricultural production. It should be useful for many stakeholders including researchers, policymakers, governments, NGOs etc. If realized, plans to build on the Soils4Africa by emerging initiatives SIS will further increase the impact of the sils4Africa project beyond its current duration.
