Towards Integrated Soil Fertility Management in Tanzania: Developing Farmers' Options and Responsive Polities in the Context of Prevailing Agro-Ecological Socio-Economic and Institutional Conditions

Declining soil fertility has been identified as the fundamental agronomic cause for declining per capita food production in Africa. This has resulted in poverty, wide spread malnutrition and massive environmental degradation. Governments, international donors and research centers have made great efforts to address the issue of declining soil fertility at continental and national scales. This book reviews some of the efforts in Tanzania to alleviate soil fertility constraints. The book presents and analyzes the ISFM policy debates at international and Tanzanian level, the Integrated Plant Nutrient Management (IPNM) database and constraint-options model created for Tanzania, factors influencing ISFM in Tanzania and the participatory approaches used by different projects across the country. It concludes by suggesting more comprehensive and user-friendly approaches to ISFM and recommending policy issues to facilitate their implementation.