Participants at the end of a 12-day training workshop on Digital Soil Mapping for Western and Central African countries have called on governments to provide the needed infrastructure for the implementation of the project.

The experts from 21 countries said most governments in Africa have not prioritised soil management and they need to know the importance of soil in the development of agriculture and other developmental processes.

The workshop organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation followed a similar one for East and Southern African countries, last year in Nairobi, Kenya.

Mr Christian Omuto, the workshop facilitator, told Ghana News Agency that the workshop was to build the capacity of participants using the state of the art technology on digital soil mapping.

He said it was to bridge the gap in terms of improving the availability of updated, quantitative and reliable soil data and information for supporting decision making in relation to sustainable soil management.

He said soil mapping would help the farmer to access information on the nature of soil before cultivation, what to plant and where to cultivate the crop.

He expressed the hope that governments would embrace the outcome of the training, saying it would help and support in policy formulation on soil management for agricultural development.

He said organisers would develop an interactive digital platform for participants to exchange and share ideas, software on soil mapping in their various countries.

He said a draft implementation plan for the whole African continent would be ready by June to be presented to the plenary Assembly of the Global Soil Partnership.

On challenges facing the digital soil mapping, he said communication in terms of data is a problem and also communication infrastructure.

Mr Alie Kamara, Acting Head, Soil Science Department, University of Njala, said based on the training; participants could improve on the way soil was mapped.

He said the information gotten as a result of the mapping would be used as first-hand information for users of the soil.

The soil experts would be expected to use the knowledge acquired to meet several of their countries’ needs, including agriculture development and increased agriculture productivity.

The workshop would contribute to strengthening African Soil Partnership.

The African Soil Partnership was launched through workshops held in Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya in 2013.

During these workshops, the representatives of the African countries presented their priorities in terms of actions to promote sustainable soil management.

The workshop is being organised as part of the International Year of Soils 2015, which runs through the year.