This current blog was prepared by Narcisse Yehouenou, Charles Lamoussa Sanou, Kwame Oppong Hackman and Alhassan Lansah Abdulai. It shares insights on integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) and the impact on biodiversity and overall ecological health.
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Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) is a holistic approach for soil fertility that combines organic and inorganic fertilizers with improved germplasm. While the primary goal of ISFM is to improve soil health and crop productivity, its impact on biodiversity remains an important but understudied aspect. The COINS project has systematically monitored biodiversity across different land use types to understand how ISFM practices influence ecological health in comparison to conventional farming methods and less disturbed landscapes.
Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life forms within a given environment. It includes the diversity of genes, species, landscapes and ecological functions. In agricultural landscapes, biodiversity provides essential ecosystem services that support productivity, including pollination, pest control, nutrient cycling, and soil formation.
Biodiversity monitoring involves systematic observation, collection, and analysis of data on biological diversity over time in a given ecosystem. This process helps to track changes in composition, abundance, and special distribution over time of genes, species, landscapes and ecological functions. It provides insights into ecosystem health and functioning. In smallholder farming systems, biodiversity monitoring is particularly important for:
1. Identifying agricultural landscapes that contribute to broader conservation goals,
2. Providing evidence on whether farming practices can increase productivity without degrading ecological functions,
3. Indicating a farming system’s capacity to withstand shocks and stresses, mainly climate change impacts, and
4. Quantifying and valuing the ecosystem services that support agriculture, such as pollination and natural pest control
In Northern Ghana, like in many countries, where agriculture and biodiversity conservation often appear to be competing objectives, systematic monitoring can help identify win-win approaches that support both food security and ecological health.
Monitoring framework
The WASCAL COINS project team established a comprehensive monitoring framework to compare the three distinct land use types described as follows:
1. ISFM farms: our target, cultivated areas (farms) where the integrated soil fertility management practices are implemented.
2. Conventional farms: cultivated areas (farms) where traditional farming methods or any method that is not ISFM and is not particularly designed and promoted.
3. Less disturbed landscapes or Pristine: vegetation areas where farms are not established, serving as proxies for pristine areas and ecological benchmarks.
This monitoring focused primarily on arthropods’ taxa because they have been identified in science as key indicators of ecological health. These small invertebrates are particularly valuable as bioindicators due to their sensitivity to environmental changes, diverse ecological functions (pollination, pest control, decomposition), quick response to management interventions and presence across different trophic levels.
Collection method
We employed intensive multiple collection methods to ensure comprehensive sampling. We considered passive traps and soil excavation as follows:
1. Combi Trap: a combination of glass for flight interception and pan trap. It helped us to capture flying insects and other arthropods moving above ground.
2. Pitfall Trap: methodically installed in the soil to collect ground-dwelling arthropods.
3. Soil Excavation: we dug the soil to collect earthworms and other visible soil organisms.
We conducted samplings across distinct periods aligned with key farming stages. This temporal approach intends to provide insights into how biodiversity fluctuates throughout the agricultural cycle and how different management practices affect these patterns
Currently, specimens are still undergoing morphospecies sorting and counting processes. Results will be available once data analysis is done at the end of the process. From literature and based on assumptions behind ISFM, we are expecting the following patterns:
1. Arthropod diversity appears to vary significantly between the three land use types, with less disturbed areas generally showing higher diversity,
2. ISFM farms show promising signs of supporting greater arthropod abundance compared to conventional farms, and
3. Soil-dwelling organisms, especially earthworms, seem more abundant in ISFM farms where soil organic matter has been enhanced.
This biodiversity monitoring work in Ghana’s Northern region represents an important step toward understanding how agricultural intensification through ISFM can be achieved while supporting ecological health. By sharing these experiences and forthcoming results, we hope to contribute to the growing knowledge base on sustainable farming practices that balance productivity needs with biodiversity conservation in smallholder farming systems across Africa. As soon as we have finished counting arthropods, we will combine the data with that coming from soil sampling and vegetation analysis to provide comprehensive insights.