Increasing the Impacts from Soil Fertility Research in Southern Africa

Many institutions and dedicated individuals including farmers devoted time and effort in ensuring the smooth implementation of this project. First, we would like to appreciate the Agro-ecosystems Team at ICRISAT for the wisdom and courage to write a proposal for investigating this research area. We would especially like to recognize Joseph Rusike, the first Project Leader who left in August 2005, and David Rohrbach, an active member of the project team who left in January 2006, for their insights and contribution to this project. Second, we would like to register our thanks to the IDRC management for entrusting ICRISAT with the funding as well as the technical partnership that went on so smoothly in the implementation of this project − first with the late Luis Navarro [may his soul rest in eternal peace], and later with Catherine Kilelu who is remembered for her focused comments on the intermediate outputs of the project. The new Senior Program Officer, Pascal Sanginga, very ably read earlier drafts of this report and provided very good comments, including a new reporting framework. Furthermore, we would like to thank ICRISAT Headquarters for their administrative, financial, and technical support. Our partners − farmers, NARS, academic institutions, private sector − contributed immensely to the success of this project and for that we register our gratitude. We shall continue to follow up on these initial efforts with a view to improve the livelihoods of our intended beneficiaries. Last, but not least, we would like to thank our technical colleagues at ICRISAT for their excellent cooperation in this project