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Conventional farming (

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Declining soil fertility continues to hinder agricultural production especially among resource-constrained smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, prompting for evaluation of the strategies used by these farming communities. In this study, we assess soil fertility management among smallholder farmers in Mount Kenya East region. The aim is to examine underlying factors conditioning the uptake of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) practices in this region; determine the adoption relationship between the practices; and to cluster these techniques. Data for this study was collected between January-March 2019 through a household survey based on a farm household questionnaire and complemented with semi-structured interview with farmers and extension officers. Statistical analyses were generated using SPSS. We use hierarchical clustering analysis to visualize ISFM combination patterns, and correlation matrix in factor analysis to determine the inter-relationship between different ISFM practices. Fisher's exact test and Welch's t-test were used to examine the association between explanatory variables and adoption of ISFM practices. Results show that the decision to invest in fertility practices was correlated with a number of farmers' socio-economic, farm-related factors and institutional characteristics. Fertilizer application correlated significantly with manure use, agroforestry and minimum tillage. ISFM techniques were separated into 3 sets following Ward's hierarchical clustering, namely, manure, fertilizer use and agroforestry (cluster 1 or C1), slash-no-burn, residue burn and fallowing (C2); and residue application and minimum tillage (C3). The study recommends creation of an enabling environment including innovative financing opportunities to facilitate farmers' investment capacities in ISFM and cushion them from potential income loss resulting from implementation of some technologies.

In September 2009, in Budapest, Hungary, several events were organized to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first International Conference of Agrogeology. A symposium to review the 100 years of advances in soil sciences and a seminar entitled “From the Dokuchaev School to Numerical Soil Classifications” were organized. As result of these discussions, a resolution (known as the “Godollo Resolution”) was prepared and forwarded to the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) Council for discussion at the 2010 World Congress of Soil Sciences in Brisbane, Australia. The resolution stated that there is a need (i) to develop common standards, methods, and terminology in soil observations and investigations and a universal soil classification (USC) system and (ii) for a new working group to coordinate the efforts of this global undertaking. There was a general agreement that there is a need for evaluation of current spatial soil definition and classification systems and new innovative approaches should be investigated to develop a common universally accepted system. During the 2010 World Congress of Soil Sciences in Brisbane, Australia, the IUSS Council unanimously accepted the Godollo Resolution and formally accepted the proposal for a new working group to carry out the proposed investigations and development of common standards, methods, and terminology in soil observations and investigations and a USC system.