Declining soil fertility, a time bomb
Declining soil fertility has long been recognised as a major obstacle to
sustaining current levels of agricultural production in Africa. Indeed, as
fertility declines in the face of rising population and disabling policies,
there is the near certainty of exponential deterioration in fertility and
decline in yields. 
Unfortunately,
soil fertility research in Southern Africa indicates difficulties in finding
permanent solutions to the crisis, and its impact, initially on rural households
but ultimately on national economies.
The urgent need to develop technologies that are affordable and can readily be practised by small-scale farmers is starkly demonstrated by the plight of land-constrained agricultural populations in Eastern and Southern Africa. This is the case in particular in Zimbabwe and South Africa, where the political pressure for settlement of landless black peasants and urban poor to relatively fertile white-owned farms has intensified and, in Zimbabwe erupted into a land reform crisis that has paralysed the whole agricultural economy. But, while the resettled and those hoping to be resettled may look forward to exploiting what they see as rich soils long denied to them, the process of mining the land for its natural fertility, and the ever-increasing pressure from population growth, that has damaged so much land already other ecological regions, will slowly but surely lead to the deterioration of soil fertility in the repossessed lands.
Some see declining soil fertility as a time bomb waiting to explode, sending Sub-Saharan Africa into ever deeper poverty and political strife. Zimbabwe's current economic, social and political crises lend weight to this argument and demonstrate the complex linkages between the many human, social, economic, technical and policy factors involved. Time may not be on the side of Zimbabwe as events there unfold but more soil fertility research and interchange of experiences are clearly needed in order to find more effective afrocentric solutions to soil management for sustainable production to avoid a repeating tragedy throughout the SADC region and beyond.
Article submitted by Dr Reneth Mano, Applied Agric Policy Analyst and Development Specialist, University of Zimbabwe, Department of Agric Economics
