Acid soils are a major constraint to agricultural productivity in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia. Restoring soil pH to optimal ranges for agriculture can have a significant impact on yields, particularly for acid intolerant crops like wheat and barley. The application of agricultural lime is the standard corrective, although the large application requirements, lack of farmer awareness, and weak or non-existent lime supply chains make this a complex problem to address at scale. To date, no large-scale farmer trials of lime application have been undertaken in Ethiopia. This leaves open the question to local policy makers as to the economic benefits given the enormous capital and logistics investments required. To help address this we leverage existing spatial edaphic data and longitudinal crop surveys to simulate the productivity impact of varying lime and fertilizer applications. Our estimates find the impact of moving pH from 5.5 to 6.5, modeled as a lime soil remediation strategy, increases yields by 22% and 19% for wheat and barley, respectively. In addition, at lower pH levels our models indicate that commonly used nitrogen-based fertilizers are less cost-effective. For wheat in highly acidic soils, we find that fertilizers cost over two times as much as a single application of lime over a five-year period. The cost savings of the use of lime reaches as high as 121% of average one-year agricultural household income for wheat; with barley these savings are lower but still substantial at 24%. In general, we advocate for an integrated soil fertility management strategy that applies appropriate levels of fertilizer on pH balanced soil. If successful, Ethiopia’s acid soil reclamation could become a modest version of Brazil’s successful “cerrado miracle” and serve as an example for Africa.

Motivation: Increased attention to the health and nutritional status of people in low-income countries has led to the development and budgeting for food and nutrition policies. While current policy discussions generally acknowledge the need for better integrating nutrition-sensitive approaches into current nutrition-specific health interventions, most do not weigh the costs and merits or potential synergies. Purpose: The overall objective of this article is to gain insight into the types of interventions that policy-makers can select and combine to sustainably improve nutrition outcomes in Rwanda. Methods and approach: Making use of the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) combined with linear programming (LP) techniques applied to food consumption data, this article applies a cost-benefit analysis to Rwanda on two distinct intervention bundles targeted at children and pregnant women. The first entails a set of six nutrient supplementation interventions; the second involves dietary diversification. Findings: Whereas both intervention types yield comparable results with respect to short-term cost effectiveness, the diet diversity approach clearly outperforms nutrient supplementation interventions when aspects of behavioural change, fiscal dependency, and broader economic spillovers are considered in the longer term. Given that undernutrition