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

预计撒哈拉以南非洲的粮食需求在2010年至2050年期间将增加两倍，需要迅速缩小当前农业产量与潜在产量之间的差距，以便在2050年之前保持目前的谷物自给自足水平(约80%)。如果没有它，结果将是大规模的农田扩张，随之而来的是生物多样性的丧失和温室气体排放，或者严重依赖进口。因此，该项目的目的是将负担得起的土壤分析带给非洲各地的小农，以利用化肥投资的好处来提高他们的产量。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，开发了一种对这些气体的传感器，并证明了其响应可以与不同的土壤性质相关联。在这个项目中，我们将试图证明这项技术可以用于沙拉罕以下的土壤。该项目将由P.E.S.Technologies领导，该公司是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(非洲土壤信息系统(AfSIS)的一个非营利性分支机构)和世界农林(ICRAF)合作，后者是一个与肯尼亚农民合作的卓越科学和发展中心。

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.