Orienting soil management technologies for West Africa in robust data infrastructure
Blog prepared by: Dr Bertin Takoutsing, Land health Scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF
From 20-24 October 2025, researchers, innovators, public institutions, private sector actors and end users of agricultural technologies in West Africa, convened in Bamako, Mali for the Market for Agricultural Innovations and Technologies (MITA) flagship event. Organized around the theme of "facilitating access to integrated soil management agricultural technologies and innovations," the event is hosted by the Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain pour la Recherche et le Développement Agricoles (West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development or CORAF).
MITA is a powerful platform operatinng in West and Central Africa, providing digital information on improved agricultural innovations and technologies. The CORAF MITA meeting was a chance for stakeholders to introduce their proven technologies for integrated soil management and promote knowledge exchange.
At the meeting, I had the pleasure of presenting two exciting initiatives from the CIFOR-ICRAF portfolio of soil and land health management: the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) and a new project supported by the Norwegian Development Agency (Norad).
The LDSF is a field-based approach that has been in operation since 20XX, and has been applied in over in over 45 countries. The framework involves combining systematic field-based data collection, soil sample analysis at the CIFOR-ICRAF spectroscopy lab, and integration with remote sensing tools that produce predictive modelling and tracks changes over time. The LDSF supports several decision dashboards in operation at the project, national and global levels.
The LDSF is an affordable and practical innovation for monitoring soil and land health over time. It will be instrumental in scaling the soil data ecosystem through the new Norad-funded project, Establishing an ecosystem of soil data-driven services. The new three-year initiative builds from the results of a pilot project carried out between August 2024 and January 2025 with CIFOR-ICRAF, the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) and the Varda Foundation. The pilot was carried out in Kenya and Tanzania and will be scaled to Ghana and Malawi to establish an integrated soil information service in Africa.
Soil data innovations sparking new partnerships and dialogue
The response to these CIFOR-ICRAF initiatives was overwhelmingly positive. Participants from research institutions, and representatives of Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP), and extension agencies expressed strong interest in the LDSF’s potential to strengthen national soil information systems and guide evidence-based land restoration. Several delegates from Ghana, Senegal, Mali and Sierra Leone shared their enthusiasm for joining the growing network of countries applying the LDSF approach, highlighting the urgent need for harmonized soil data to inform sustainable land management.
Discussions around the new Norad-supported project also generated considerable excitement. Stakeholders emphasized the importance of building interoperable data infrastructures that can serve farmers, policymakers, and investors alike. Representatives from CORAF member countries and representatives of FSRP programs engaged in follow-up conversations exploring opportunities for collaboration on soil data harmonization and technology dissemination across the subregion.
“What we need now is not just data, but useful and connected data that speaks to local realities,” said Emmanuel Njukwe, Director of Research at CORAF. “The LDSF and the new soil data ecosystem project show that it’s possible to bridge that gap.”
The conference featured other presenters addressing soil health and digital innovations, from soil fertility management to digital advisory services. This collective energy underscored a shared understanding: improving soil health requires open data, strong partnerships, and local capacity.
Reflecting on the event, I was struck by the momentum building across West Africa toward more integrated, data-driven soil management. The conversations reaffirmed that the region is ready for a new era of collaboration — one where science, technology, and policy converge to restore the land and secure food systems.
