Through networking of partners by way of a consortium approach, the project has demonstrated that 50% of chemical fertilizers can be substituted with the locally-produced vermicompost that the farmers themselves make. In Madhya Pradesh 800 trials were conducted, and a 1000 in Rajasthan, during the post-rainy season, which demonstrated the productivity benefits that can be achieved by following the science-led farmer participatory approach.

In the northern highlands of Ethiopia, establishment of exclosures to restore degraded communal grazing lands has been practiced for the past three decades. However, empirical data on the effectiveness of exclosures in restoring degraded soils are lacking. We investigated the influence of exclosure age on degree of restoration of degraded soil and identified easily measurable biophysical and management-related factors that can be used to predict soil nutrient restoration.

• Without understanding what (and why) farmers need and are able to carry out, SLM uptake is likely to remain very limited. 
• ELMO is participatory tool to assessing farmers’ land management decision preferences & trade-offs.
• Is mainly concerned with identifying the social and economic drivers of land management decisions & understanding farmers’ preferences for different SLM practices.
• Intention is to better understand farmers’ own perceptions and explanations of the benefits, costs, advantages, disadvantages & tradeoffs associated with different la

Powerpoint presentation by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) about the ten key steps for "ELMO".

Responding to the immediate challenge of how we sustainably intensify the production of food, fuel and fiber to meet future demand without the further degradation of our finite land resource base, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), which emerged from the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012, is a potential target to address this challenge.