Soil Fertility

The soil consists of minerals, water, air, organic matter,soil organisms and soil microorganisms. Soil structure refers to the arrangement of soil particles with resultant formation of big and small pores between soil aggregates. The different soil types are as follows: Sandy soil, silty soil, and clay soil.

A fertile soil is in active exchange with the plants, restructures itself and is capable of regeneration. The fertility can be measured by spade examination and soil analysis. In Africa, the soil fertility is inherently low. Various factors influence soil fertility improvement in sub-saharan Africa.

Organic soil fertility management can be seen as a three-step approach with a range of tools to manage soil fertility and plant nutrition.

Responsible authors:
Gilles Weidmann and Noah Adamtey (FiBL), Brian Ssebunya