ISFM as a strategic goal

A.B Bationo, 'ISFM as a strategic goal', In: Sanginga, N. and Woomer, P.L. (eds.) Integrated Soil Fertility Management in Africa: Principles, Practices and Developmental Process. Chapter 1. Nairobi: Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Centre for Tropical Agricultur, pp.13-21, 2009

Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) may be defined as â??the application of soil fertility management practices, and the knowledge to adapt these to local conditions, which maximize fertilizer and organic resource use efficiency and crop productivity. These practices necessarily include appropriate fertilizer and organic input management in combination with the utilization of improved germplasm.â?? ISFM is not characterized by unique field practices, but is rather a fresh approach to combining available technologies in a manner that preserves soil quality while promoting its productivity. ISFM practitioners do not merely recite this definition, but plan much of their annual field activities around it. Soil fertility management includes timely and judicious utilization of pre-plant and top-dressed mineral fertilizers, but also the generation, collection, storage, enrichment and application of available organic resources and the maintenance and enhancement of beneficial soil organisms and biological processes