INTEGRATED SOIL MANAGEMENT AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN WEST AFRICA: 2. NEW POLICY APPROACHES Niek Koning *, Nico Heerink * and Sjef Kauffman ** * Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8130, 6700 EW Wageningen, The Netherlands, E-mail: niek.koning@alg.aae.wau.nl ** International Soil Reference and Information Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands SUMMARY A shift toward Integrated Soil Management technologies in West Africa is critically dependent on adequate policy conditions. We argue that neo-liberal reforms and the promotion of techniques like organic farming are insufficient to realise this transition. Support of agricultural incomes is also needed, at least temporarily, especially because of the time lags involved in the learning and local adaptation of new technologies and in realising the full benefits of soil fertility investments. 1 INTRODUCTION Two major developments have characterised the policy environment of West-African farmers during the 1980s and 1990s. At the national and international levels, major liberal economic reforms took place. At the micro level, attempts to introduce participatory strategies for encouraging farm progress based on a minimal use of markets for obtaining inputs proliferated. Many scientists and policymakers have expected these new policy approaches to create better conditions for sustainable agricultural development. In reality, however, food production per capita in West Africa declined by almost 0.5% per year on average during the period 1979-81 to 1994-96 (and non-food agricultural production per capita declined slightly faster). During the same period, fertiliser consumption first increased from 6.9 kg per ha in 1979-81 to 11.0 kg per ha in 1991-93, and subsequently declined to 7.5 kg per ha in 1994-96 (World Bank 2000). In a first paper, we argued that Integrated Soil Management is an essential condition for sustainable agricultural development in West Africa (Kauffman et al. 2000). Such an approach combines improved water availability, increased use of organic and inorganic fertilisers, and application of soil conservation techniques. In this paper, we examine the reasons why prevailing policy approaches in the 1980s and 1990s have not been able to achieve sustainable development of the agricultural sector in West Africa. In addition, we recommend ways in which policy makers can promote Integrated Soil Management as a means to achieve sustainable agricultural development. In Section 2, we survey the effects of liberal reforms on soil management and agricultural development under existing conditions, and argue that these effects cannot easily be changed by an ecological-participationist approach. In Section 3, we question the extent to which liberal economic reforms have been able to deliver the right prices for stimulating Integrated Soil Management. Finally in Section 4, we argue that, besides elements of the new policy approaches including public investments in hard and soft infrastructure, (temporary) support of farm incomes is essential for sustainable agricultural development in West Africa.