Optimizing Fertilizer Use in Africa (OFRA).

OFRA is a 3-year project supported with BMGates Foundation funding through the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). OFRA is managed by CABI in collaboration with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and 13 national research teams. The OFRA goal is improved efficiency and profitability of fertilizer use, integrated as appropriate with other practices, in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. It addresses major cereal, cassava, and pulse crops in important agroecological zones (AEZ). Key OFRA partners include the Africa Soil Health Consortium (ASHC), country SHCs, Africa Soil Information Services (AfSIS), the Global Yield Gap Atlas, and the Grameen Foundation Community. Major intended outputs include: (i) a geo-referenced database of crop-nutrient response functions determined from existing data and results of OFRA trials; (ii) AEZS-crop specific nutrient response functions determined from locally determined response information and information extrapolated from elsewhere using soil, climate and other spatial information in partnership with AfSIS; (iii) develop AEZ specific fertilizer use decision tools for profit optimization relative to farmers’ financial and agronomic context; and (v) in partnership with the ASHC, improved access to and national capacity to provide information and communication materials. OFRA builds on accomplishments in Uganda where field research resulted in 15 crop-nutrient response functions, including six crops, which were integrated into an optimization tool for best returns on investment in fertilizer use through choice of crop-nutrient-rate combinations. The optimization approach is being deployed with farmer advisors.