The CATALIST project will holistically encompass areas in which IFDC has considerable experience and will work in a participatory manner with farmers and other stakeholders, "catalyzing" and facilitating stakeholder collaboration.
Farmers will be trained in integrated soil fertility managementthe use of mineral fertilizers along with soil amendments such as crop residues, green and animal manures, and lime.
"The soil amendments interact with mineral fertilizers to improve soil quality, including the organic matter content, pH, and nutrient availability," Breman says. "That improves the efficiencyand thus, the profitabilityof fertilizer use for smallholder farmers."
The Albertine Rift and Kagera River Basin
Agricultural intensification will be particularly important in the Albertine Rift and the Kagera River Basin, where social and environmental stability is most lacking.
The Albertine Rift, a steep mountain range with many volcanoes, stretches from the northern end of Lake Albert to the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, and borders the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. Soils are generally fertile, rainfall is abundant, and temperatures drop rapidly with increasing altitudes. Conservation International has named the Albertine Rift one of the world's "biodiversity hot spots"home to more mammals, birds, and amphibians than anywhere else in Africa. Part of the region is still covered by tropical rain forest.
The Kagera Basin is in the border area of Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania, and is the headwater of the White N
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Contact: Thomas R. Hargrove
thargrove@ifdc.org
256-381-6600
IFDC
11-Dec-2006