382 Enabling Policies and Institutions for Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems
Allen, 1989; van der Pol, 1992). Such data provide simplistic messages regarding
the significance, diversity and dynamics of soil-nutrient management at farmer
level, and also lead to a blinkered view of the means by which to encourage more
sustainable agricultural practices generally. The end result is often a set of policy
statements which bear only partial relation to what can be seen at farmer level, but
which many are unwilling to contest.
Third, the current policy focus on soil-fertility management needs to be under-
stood in the light of the structural adjustment measures undertaken by African
countries under IMF and World Bank guidance in the 1980s and 1990s, which
reduced substantially farmers’ ability to gain access to inorganic nutrients by cut-
ting subsidies and credit programmes. The fact that the World Bank is behind
both structural adjustment and the SFI has sent a set of contradictory signals to
African governments, who hope that the SFI may provide a vehicle for the reintro-
duction of such measures.
New directions? Recognizing the multiple dimensions of
soil-fertility management
Interventions to address soil-fertility management need to consider five dimen-
sions which frame the range of options available. First, as has been demonstrated
throughout this book, the diversity of sites, soils and strategies found within and
between African farming systems is very great. Thus, tailoring approaches to suit
the opportunities and problems encountered in any particular location is of key
importance. Second, there is a considerable level of differentiation between farm-
ers in any one location, which means that no single package of measures will be
appropriate for all. Third, as was clear from the discussion above, there is a wide
choice of potential actions aimed at achieving better soil-fertility management,
from direct technical inputs to broader macro-economic measures, which can be
pursued either separately or in combination. This presents decision makers at dif-
ferent levels with a valuable menu of options from which to choose. The fourth
dimension concerns the time frame over which such measures might usefully be
implemented, given current conditions and other ongoing policy changes with an
influence on soil management. Some measures produce rapid impacts, particularly
those operating through prices and markets, while others are far slower in bringing
about changes such as land tenure reforms, and changes to training of extension
officers. The fifth dimension concerns the broader context, and how macro-level
decisions might better take into account the need to promote more sustainable
patterns of soil management at farm level. Hence the potential role to be played by
a national strategy for soil-fertility management which forces an explicit analysis of
how current policies in a range of fields affect incentives at farm level.