ABSTRACT
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) was conceived as an institute where scientists of different disciplines would work together for the common goal of systems intensification. However, the practice of the first decade had been one of increasing 'compartmentalisation', both across programs and within the Farming Systems Program (FSP). The 1977 Quinquennial Review stressed the need for integration of research results for the attainment of one of the Institute's major goals: developing alternatives to shifting cultivation and 'to give priority to the validation and off-site evaluation of systems presently being developed at IITA for the sub-humid zone'. The Benchmark Soils project was the flagship project of soils research of the 1970s. The eventual outcome of the project would be a combination of soil maps showing the major soil formations, combined with physical and chemical analyses of representative soils (the Benchmark Soils) and an analysis of their capability and likely nutrient responses.
