Welcome to our first issue of 2025! Inside you will find a collection of articles dedicated to the topic of precision nutrient management (PNM), one of APNI’s strategic R&D themes. Of course this is a broad topic, so our approach has been to examine PNM through a few different lenses. We’ve highlighted a range of recent examples of key progress …as well as some areas of need that are currently being addressed. As always, I’d like to express our appreciation to each of our contributors for the insights they have given us.
We begin with an overview of the state of precision agriculture in Africa whose authors provide an interesting review of current constraints, needs and opportunities. This is followed by a renewed call for action for the ongoing initiative to develop a Professional Certified Agronomy Advisory Program for Africa (PCAAP). As the authors describe, this is a cornerstone initiative designed to create a new capacity for professional training.
We also have an expanded call for researchers to contribute data to a growing and collaborative agronomic database called the Open Data Crop Nutrition Platform. This open access initiative is creating an increasingly diverse dataset. This effort is meant to unlock a previously untapped ability to query a shared data resource, and generate hypotheses, conduct analyses, and uncover insights from a large global depository.
From the field, a study from Uganda provides some key lessons gained from on-farm experimentation (OFE), where farmers work through the discovery of local solutions to climate-smart management in upland rice fields. Another OFE study features a group of maize farmers in Kenya who have been ‘triggered’ with a new motivation to test technologies previously thought to be out of reach. Lastly from northern Nigeria, researchers present a comparative study examining the advantages, and trade-offs, for soil nutrient assessment conducted by remote sensing versus traditional lab methods.
Our newest infographic forum, GrowthCharts, highlights crop diversity in Africa as a unique strength to explore. We also want to use this opportunity to offer your participation in our open forums. Submit a question to be answered by of staff via the Ask an APNI Expert forum.
On the news front, our Annual Photo Contest is open to submissions once again. Make sure to upload your images of crop nutrient deficiency or R&D in action before this year’s deadline of September 30. You can also always share any of your photos destined for social media through use of the hashtag #ShareGrowingAfrica …we feature one interesting image in each issue of the magazine. Curious about our schedule for research proposal calls? Be sure to consult our EXCEL Africa calendar to stay up to date on important dates for the remainder of the year.
We appreciate the opportunity to amplify research and outreach results with our audience of end-users of agronomic knowledge. Initial questions about making a submission can be answered by our guide for authors found at https://growingafrica.pub/about. More information about the publication process can be obtained by contacting our staff directly.
Sincerely yours,
Gavin Sulewski
Senior Editor | Communications Lead, APNI
