Networking and Fieldwork in Abidjan

In June, the INSA coordination team, Claire Delon, Corinne Galy-Lacaux et Dominique Serça, visited Côte d’Ivoire to promote collaborations between the INSA project and local organisations, as well as squeeze in some fieldwork. The first week of their visit was dedicated to launching a collaboration with the African Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture (CEA-CCBAD), meeting with local stakeholders to discuss nitrogen management, and meeting with the director of school management in Côte d’Ivoire to prepare the Petits Débrouillards school interventions planned for February and March 2022.

The team also met with Ms. Nicole Aphing Kouassi, the Deputy Director General of the National Rural Development Support Agency (ANADER) to discuss future collaborations with INSA and knowledge sharing. It is planned that a collaboration agreement will be signed between INSA and ANADER. The second week of their visit was dedicated to the installation of various devices to measure atmospheric ammonia concentrations and collect soil solutions to determine mineral and organic nitrogen concentrations. These devices were installed at the geophysical station in Lamto, led by University Félix Houphouët-Boigny (FHBU) and in collaboration with the International Network to study Deposition and Atmospheric composition in Africa (INDAAF) program. Temperature sensors for the SoilTemp project were installed in the secondary forest and savana surrounding the station.