Ways Forward? Technical Choices, Intervention Strategies and Policy Options 357taken depending on their circumstances. Farmers are constantly seeking new
strategies as problems arise or new opportunities develop.- Farmers’ management of soil nutrients depends on a range of socioeconomic
factors. Access to livestock, labour, credit and markets are of particular impor-
tance in explaining which farmers are best able to maintain and improve the
fertility of their soils. The household remains central to the management of the
farm and the mobilization of resources, such as labour and capital. However,
other social institutions are also of great value in enabling farmers to negotiate
access to obtain resources such as draft power, transport and credit. Such insti-
tutions also help farmers protect themselves from risk by the development of
social networks through which help can be sought in times of need. - Data on nutrient balances demonstrate a mixed pattern of accumulation and
depletion, depending on plot, farmer and location. Overall, cash-crop land
receives the major share of both mineral and organic fertilizers applied. Land
sown to lower-value crops, such as coarse grains, shows a consistently negative
nutrient balance. However, due to rotation of crops, cereal yields can often
benefit from residual fertility stemming from the previous year. Location of
plots is also important, with land close to the settlement or cattle pen receiving
most nutrient inputs. - Farmers in all sites have been affected by recent policy changes, such as struc-
tural adjustment, devaluation and land tenure reforms, as well as exogenous
events such as drought. Such changes have brought about major shifts in
returns to different crops, as well as the liberalization of crop marketing. Farm-
ers are clearly responsive to such positive changes, which implies that govern-
ments have a range of measures by which to influence farmers’ decision making.
This range of policy options is discussed in more detail below.
Given this diversity of local contexts and the complex dynamics of soil-fertility
change, what is the most appropriate way to identify options by which to support
more sustainable soil management by smallholders in Africa’s more marginal farm-
ing areas? Such options must combine different elements: technical choices, strate-
gies for intervention and a range of policy measures. The remainder of the chapter
sets out to explore this question. First, the particular incentives – operating at a
range of scales from the household to the village to the national context – for farm-
ers to invest in soil-fertility management are discussed. These factors condition the
range of technical choices that farmers make. The following section looks at the
variety of ways farmers can and do manage their soil fertility and the implications
this has for intervention strategies by governments, donors and others. The suc-
cess of such strategies are seen to be affected by agroecological conditions, house-
hold and community-level institutional arrangements, and national policies in a
range of areas. It is these policy themes which are then picked up in the follow-
ing section, when issues of devaluation and structural adjustment, credit, rural
infrastructure, research and extension services, and land and tenure reform and
decentralization are discussed. A wide range of policies, therefore, are seen to affect