This award funds a workshop in Mali that will bring together 15 U.S. scientists and students with over 20 African scientists from national universities and research institutions, as well as from international research institutions based in Africa. The workshop will focus on the fate and impacts of nitrogen in a wide range of agro-ecosystems spanned by the 12 Millennium Villages Projects (MVP) in 10 African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda.) The workshop aims to identify topics and methodologies (e.g., ecological field, laboratory and modeling techniques) that can serve as a framework for developing collaborative research projects between U.S. and African scientists. It can also help delineate a research agenda for African agro-ecosystems, with an initial focus on N dynamics within the soil, landscape, and soil-water interface and the relative importance of N or P limitation on primary productivity.
The Millennium Villages Project sites represent a unique comparative opportunity to advance basic understanding of biogeochemical cycling in agricultural Africa. Each of the 12 clusters of villages is located in a distinct agro-ecological zone (arid or humid, highland or lowland) and represents an important agricultural production system. A Science Coordinator, who is an African national with a Ph. D., leads the science efforts at each MVP site, and there are projects already established to study hydrology, education and human health. The MVP sites share standardized research protocols, allowing for comparisons among sites and within sites through time. Environmental conditions of soils, vegetation type and biomass, water quality, and land use/land cover are established through a nested design of remotely sensed and ground level data.
Many of the U.S. participants in the workshop have research experience in Africa and/or have been involved in NSF-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) projects. The Science Coordinators provide scientific expertise on soils, nutrient cycling and agro-ecosystem management, and can also serve as focal points for long-term research at the MVP sites. Thus a secondary objective of the workshop is to explore the possibility of establishing an African Long-Term Research Network (ALTRN) associated with the Millennium Villages Project in sub-Saharan Africa.
The workshop has the potential for significant broader impacts. Although crop yields and per capita food consumption have increased dramatically in Asia and Latin America over the past 40 years, such a Green Revolution has not occurred in Africa, leaving thousands in a state of chronic undernourishment. An African Green Revolution has been launched, with nitrogen fertilizer at the core of increasing crop yields. In order for these efforts to be successful and to avoid some of the negative environmental consequences of the Asian Green Revolution, it is essential that the long-term fate and environmental impacts of added N be understood. The workshop will serve to strengthen collaborations between U.S. and African scientists on an issue of global social and environmental consequences.
