Pre-notification: ETH-Soil call for research proposals No. 2

24.08.2023

Land erosion, deforestation and a global fertilizer shortage are threads to the Ethiopian food security. ETH-Soil aims to enhance soil quality – and thereby crop yields – in the East African country. Within the project we are working on sustainable solutions employing biochar based biofertilizers that will help smallholder farmers to gain independence from fertilizer imports.

In order to achieve that, we will release a second call for biofertilizer development in Ethiopia building on a first call in the beginning of the year. The second call will focus on the development of a participatory approach to the formulation and application of biochar based biofertilizer on smallholder farms.

This includes:

• field experiments using a participatory approach in regard to farmers.
• development of appropriate biofertilizer formulations based on the identified soil fertility problem and available biomass at farm sites.

The complete call will be released on 1^st October by GIZ and on the ETH-Soil website. Deadline for proposal submissions will be 3^rd December. Samples of the respective biochars intended for the application in the farm trials are to be provided to GIZ InS headquarters in Addis Ababa by 16^th November.

We are looking forward to promising proposals!