Research and development priorities

Abstract

The conference was a great success. It addressed an important and a timely theme of 4 dimension of sustainability: environmental, economic, social, and institutional. Participation was very enthusiastic and was representative of all regions of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the donor community. Discussions were objective and of high quality and all goals of the conference were realized. Above all, there were numerous examples of presentations describing innovative research based on some cross cutting issues and cutting edge science. Among innovative research approaches discussed included: (i) the nexus approach and inter-connectivity, (ii) the societal value of soil and the terrestrial carbon (C) pool, (iii) payments for ecosystem services, (iv) the disease-suppressive soils, (v) the soil-centric green revolution, (vi) focus on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, and (vii) relation between human health and soil quality. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to summarize the salient points of discussion and identify some key research and developmental priorities.