Mati Carbon is partnering with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a CGIAR organization, on a new collaboration that aims to generate evidence on enhanced rock weathering (ERW) in African farming systems.

The two partners inked a five-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the COP31 conference held in Antalya, Türkiye. 

Under the MOU, Mati and IITA will run joint ERW field trials in Kenya and Nigeria, cooperating on data sharing and analysis, scientific publication, capacity building with national research institutions, and joint fundraising. 

This effort will feed data into two CGIAR Science Programs. The CGIAR Sustainable Farming Program, which works with national partners in 20+ countries to put integrated agronomy and soil health solutions into the hands of smallholder farmers, will connect the results to the advisory services that reach farmers in the field. 

At the same time, the CGIAR Climate Action Program will apply the generated evidence to help farming systems adapt to heat and drought and cut emissions and to the climate policy and finance decisions that will follow afterwards. 

Through this collaboration, the two partners intend to build an agronomic evidence base that can help indicate where ERW is a suitable agricultural intervention, which in turn would help inform research and policy decisions. 

To that end, the field trials will evaluate the effects of crushed basalt spread on soil and how exactly this solution impacts soil health and crop growth. 

The teams on the ground will also test ERW performance alongside reduced synthetic fertilizer use, while also working on identifying the soil types and farm systems where this approach would be most effective.

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