A client oriented systems tool box for technology transfer related to soil fertility improvement and sustainable agriculture in West Africa

In 1999, the COSTBOX project was started to develop methodologies for effective introduction of decision support tools to African NARES, NGOs, and universities. The first major activity of the project was to conduct a survey on the causes of non adoption of systems analysis as a tool in agricultural decision-making. Results pointed to causes such as lack of involvement of clients in projects that attempt to introduce systems analysis, the fact that in many modeling projects the problem is defined in such a way that it fits the model instead of the other way round, the complexity of some models, the lack of good quality data and a lack of basic knowledge of systems analysis.