Feed the Future Soil Fertility Technology Adoption, Policy Reform and Knowledge Management (RFS-SFT) Project (Semi-Annual FY2020 Report October 2019- March 2020)

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2020-05
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The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) enables smallholder farmers in developing countries to increase agricultural productivity, generate economic growth, and practice environmental stewardship by enhancing their ability to manage mineral and organic fertilizers responsibly and participate profitably in input and output markets. On March 1, 2015, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and IFDC entered into a new cooperative agreement designed to more directly support the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) objectives, particularly as related to Feed the Future (FTF). Since 2016, IFDC’s scientists and economists have contributed to USAID’s cooperative agreement for Soil Fertility Technology Adoption, Policy Reform, and Knowledge Management under two workstreams specifically related to nutrient management technologies and policy reforms, with learning agendas and knowledge management as cross-cutting issues. Since 2018, greater emphasis has been placed on coordination between field-based work in FTF countries and the support of scientists and economists from IFDC headquarters (HQ). Structural changes within IFDC are leading to more efficient communication, information, and technology flow between field research in FTF countries and HQ research. In addition to strengthening internal research efforts, IFDC, in collaboration with the Kansas State University (KSU) Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL) and supported by USAID-RFS, initiated the Sustainable Opportunities for Improving Livelihoods with Soils (SOILS) Consortium in March 2019. The consortium focuses on conducting research in sustainable opportunities for improving livelihoods with soil fertility-related solutions with a range of likeminded academic and research partners globally. The activities under the current work plan (FY2020) reflect three workstreams (Table 1), including SOILS Consortium-related research as Workstream 3, contributing to the FTF Soil Fertility Technology Adoption, Policy Reform, and Knowledge Management (RFS-SFT) project. As part of the work planning process under the RFS-SFT project, since FY2019 IFDC has initiated engagement with country-level missions to obtain concurrence for research activity implementation, funded by the RFS central mechanism. So far, RFS-SFT has received concurrence from three missions – Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda – and IFDC has regularly reported the progress of RFS-SFT activities to these missions since early 2019. For FY2020, we further plan to expand this to all other countries where we are engaged through RFS-SFT project activities: Bangladesh, Nepal, Mozambique, Zambia, Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. Under Workstream 1, IFDC continues “Developing and Validating Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Technologies and Practices,” addressing nutrient management issues and advancing sustainable agricultural intensification in FTF countries. Workstream 1 activities concluding in FY2019 and those beginning in FY2020. Under Workstream 2, IFDC supports “Policy Reform Processes, Advocacy, and Market Development.” Relevant research will be conducted to support IFDC’s global activities related to agricultural policy reforms, advocacy for change, and related efforts to achieve impact in FTF countries’ agriculture. Under Workstream 3, IFDC supports activities under the SOILS Consortium, initiated by IFDC in collaboration with SIIL at KSU, with support from USAID-RFS. The SOILS Consortium also partners with a host of U.S. academic research entities from Michigan State University, University of Colorado, Auburn University, and USDA-ARS. SOILS Consortium partners will further engage in identifying research activities that offer holistic solutions to developing a roadmap toward enhancing soil fertility in selected countries. Cross-cutting activities are described in Section 4 and Table 12. These primarily include activities associated across all three workstreams, such as monitoring, evaluation, learning, and knowledge management-related activities. Here we include data management systems and tools, outreach activities with partner organizations, training, and capacity building initiatives.
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Fertilizers, Technology
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