The Year of Global Africa presents From the Ground Up: Improving Soil Health in Africa through Partnership.

This symposium aims to share the most current research by MSU faculty and students on soil health. The two major goals of the symposium are to share the research work with the general public; and bring collaboration opportunities for faculty and students from different scientific disciplines. The symposium will be part of the Africa R&D Connect series and composed of a keynote, two panel discussions, oral and poster presentations.

Opening Keynote speaker Dr. Saweda Liverpool-Tasie, Associate Professor of Agriculture, Food and Resource Economics; "Frontiers in Soil Health" panelists Drs. Cynthia Donovan, Lisa Tiemann, Joseph P. Messina, Timothy Harrigan, and moderated by Dr. Anne Ferguson ; "Soil Health Partnership" panelists Drs. Wenda Bauchspies, Leo Zulu and Nicole Mason-Wardell, and moderated by Dr. Jennifer Olson; closing keynote speaker Dr. Sieglinde Snapp, Professor of Plant, Soil and Microbial Science.

Land degradation in Africa has been identified as one of the major crises for food security in recent decades. With limited access to expensive inorganic fertilizer and land degradation, farmers are struggling to improve crop productivity. To achieve high crop productivity while maintaining soil nutrients, researchers need to better understand and improve the soil health. MSU faculty and students from department of geography, plant soil, and microbial sciences, agricultural economics, community sustainability, and statistics are collaborating with scholars and students from Malawi, Ghana, Tanzania, and Nigeria on cutting edge research that benefit African soil health through multiple pathways.

RSVP by filling out the registration form.

This symposium is supported in part by a Year of Global Africa mini-grant.