Regional scale assessment of the potential for sustainable intensification of different Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) practices Northern Ghana
On 26 February 2026, 29 participants joined the colloquium by Dr. Madina Diancoumba from the COINS project, currently working at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) on climate risk and impact assessment. In her presentation, entitled “Regional scale assessment of the potential for sustainable intensification of different integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) practices in Northern Ghana”, Dr. Diancoumba presented the results from modelling the influence of climate change on maize yield under different fertilizer regimes.
The presentation sparked a lively discussion during which some of the assumptions of the model were questioned and suggestions were made for looking at additional perspectives, such as distinct nutrient availability from the modelled ISFM choices, showing short and long-term effects on soil organic matter and yield under organic fertilizer vis-à-vis inorganic or mixed applications. In particular, the audience was interested to learn more about the impact of organic fertilizer being the most easily available to small-scale farmers. Additional data was offered to be made available from a separate study from INTERFACES looking into the adoption potential of ISFM to add to the existing data for further analysis. And Information was shared that a ground survey showed maize yields in roughly the order of magnitude shown by Dr. Diancoumba’s mode which provided confidence in the model’s results.
