Leveraging Soil Information Systems for Fertilizer Subsidy Reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa

Project Summary:

The grant aims to facilitate knowledge exchanges among participating countries on the strategic use of Soil Information Systems (SIS) to reform fertilizer subsidies and improve soil health.

Participating countries collectively spend over USD 500 million annually on fertilizer subsidies, yet current "blanket" recommendations frequently result in low agricultural productivity and soil degradation. While investments in SIS are beginning to emerge, countries lack the technical capacity to transition from general to site-specific fertilizer recommendations — a gap this project seeks to address.

The grant is organized around four activities:

• A stock-taking exercise will assess the current state of SIS across client countries and identify gaps and reform readiness.
• Technical assistance will strengthen existing SIS through cross-country learning and engagement with experts from Korea, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.
• Knowledge exchange activities will include study tours to Korea and neighboring African countries to learn best practices in soil testing and fertilizer policy.
• Knowledge dissemination will produce training materials and guidance notes to support replication and scaling of lessons learned.

This grant is aligned as follows:

• Direct contribution to the WB-financed projects (Kenya (P177816), Malawi (P177816), Tanzania (P179818), and Zambia (P178372); Clients’ investments; and Clients’ national strategies and action plans (such as the Fertilizer and Soil Health Investment Action Plans).