Bringing affordable soil testing to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

撒哈拉以南非洲的粮食需求预计将在2010年至2050年期间增加两倍，需要迅速缩小当前农业产量与产量潜力之间的差距，以在2050年前保持当前的谷物自给自足水平（约80%）。如果不这样做，结果将是农田大规模扩张，随之而来的是生物多样性丧失和温室气体排放，或严重依赖进口。因此，该项目的目的是为非洲各地的小农户提供负担得起的土壤分析，以利用化肥投资的好处来提高产量。我们的解决方案是利用土壤生物群释放的气体中包含的丰富信息。在初步工作中，这些气体的传感器的开发和它被证明，其响应可以与各种土壤性质。在这个项目中，我们将试图证明这项技术可以用于亚萨拉罕土壤。该项目将由P.E.S.领导。技术，一家总部位于英国的初创公司，开发了土壤气体传感器，与iSDA合作，iSDA是非洲土壤信息系统（AfSIS）的非营利分支机构，世界农林（ICRAF）是一个与肯尼亚农民合作的科学和发展卓越中心。

Food demand in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to triple between 2010 and 2050 and rapid closure of the gap between current farm yields and yield potential is needed to maintain the current level of cereal self-sufficiency (approximately 80%) by 2050. Without it, the result will be massive cropland expansion with attendant biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions or vast import dependency. The aim of this project is therefore to bring affordable soil analysis to smallholder farmers across Africa to harness the benefits for investments in fertilisers to increase their yields. Our solution is to tap into the wealth of information contained in the gases released by soil biota. In preliminary work a sensor for these gases was developed and it was demonstrated that its responses can be correlated with various soil properties. In this project, we will seek to prove the that this technology can be used for sub-Sarahan soils. The project will be led by P.E.S. Technologies, a UK-based start-up company that developed the soil gas sensor, in collaboration with iSDA, a not-for-profit spin-out from the African Soil Information System (AfSIS), and World Agroforestry (ICRAF), which is a centre of science and development excellence working with farmers that is based in Kenya.