Implementing sustainable production practices to rehabilitate soils is a grand challenge of our day, particularly for resource-poor farmers. The West African Sahel requires attention to balancing the need for increasing agricultural production against harsh environmental conditions. While there is much research documenting technologies for soil regeneration in the Sahel, there has been limited focus on how agricultural practices contribute or exacerbate these efforts. Previous assessments of agricultural practices in this region have been largely descriptive, and some soil ameliorating practices have been promoted with little empirical evidence on their effectiveness. Here we systematically review the literature on soil fertility and conservation practices that have been studied within West African Sahelian agricultural systems. We identified practices in the West African Sahel that have been tested to improve soil fertility and reduce land degradation, and summarized the outcomes of these practices. A unique contribution of this review is the assessment of site-specific conditions and contexts under which practices are most effective in studies which recorded these specific characteristics. We found that research in this area is dominated by chemical fertilizer and organic amendment practices, with moderate to few studies focused on soil and water conservation, crop diversification, or agroforestry. Additionally, most studies consisted of single practices rather than combining practices that target the range of biophysical limitations farmers face in agricultural production. These limitations highlight the need for increased research testing combinations of practices across long-term on-farm studies to generate stronger evidence of conditions under which practices best perform. These findings provide key lessons for research and extension on sustainable agricultural management under the challenging conditions of the Sahel.

实施可持续生产实践以恢复土壤是当今的一项重大挑战，尤其是对于资源匮乏的农民而言。西非萨赫勒地区需要注意平衡增加农业生产与恶劣环境条件的需求。虽然有很多研究记录了萨赫勒地区的土壤再生技术，但对农业实践如何促进或加剧这些努力的关注有限。以前对该地区农业实践的评估主要是描述性的，一些土壤改良实践得到了推广，但几乎没有关于其有效性的经验证据。在这里，我们系统地回顾了在西非萨赫勒农业系统中研究过的关于土壤肥力和保护实践的文献。我们确定了西非萨赫勒地区经过测试可提高土壤肥力和减少土地退化的做法，并总结了这些做法的结果。这篇综述的一个独特贡献是评估了在记录这些特定特征的研究中实践最有效的特定地点条件和背景。我们发现该领域的研究以化肥和有机改良实践为主，很少有研究侧重于水土保持、作物多样化或农林业。此外，大多数研究由单一实践组成，而不是针对农民在农业生产中面临的生物物理限制范围的组合实践。这些限制凸显了在长期农场研究中增加对实践组合的研究测试的必要性，以产生更有力的证据证明实践最佳执行的条件。这些发现为萨赫勒充满挑战的条件下可持续农业管理的研究和推广提供了重要的经验教训。