ABSTRACT
Notions of scarcity have dominated policy debates about soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa over many decades. Too few nutrients (usually nitrogen or phosphorous) means more fertilizer (usually inorganic, chemical fertilizers) is the oft heard cry to action. The high-profile report of the Millennium Project on how to meet the first Millennium Development Goal of reducing hunger argues, for example, that improving soil health through addressing soil nutrient imbalances is the first entry point for improving agricultural productivity and central to halving hunger by 2015, particularly in Africa (UN Millennium project, 2005, P13). 1
