MATI Partners with IITA to Test Rock Dust in African Farms

MATI, a company that applies natural rock dust to fields managed by smallholder farmers, has partnered with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to generate evidence on the effectiveness of rock dust in African soils. The five-year collaboration, signed at the Food and Agriculture Pavilion during COP31, aims to establish field evidence on how crushed basalt affects soil health, crop performance, fertilizer use, and climate resilience.

The partnership will be integrated into two CGIAR Science Programs. The CGIAR Sustainable Farming Program, which works with national partners in more than 20 countries to provide integrated agronomy and soil health solutions to smallholder farmers, will connect the results to the advisory services that reach farmers in the field. The CGIAR Climate Action Program will link the evidence to its work on helping farming systems adapt to heat and drought and cut emissions, and to the climate policy and finance decisions that follow.

The field trials will assess the effects of rock dust, in the form of crushed basalt applied to soil, on soil health and crop growth. They will also examine its performance alongside reduced use of synthetic fertilizers and help identify the soil types and farming systems in which it may be most effective. The collaboration aims to build an agronomic evidence base that can help determine where enhanced rock weathering is a suitable agricultural intervention and inform research and policy decisions.

MATI applies natural rock dust to fields managed by smallholder farmers at no cost to them. The company says the material can help address soil acidity and supply nutrients. As the rock weathers, it can also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through a process known as enhanced rock weathering. In a 2025 kharif-season rice comparison involving 235 farmer fields across four Indian states, fields treated with rock dust produced a median of 25% more grain than control plots. This result is specific to the reported India study; the planned collaboration with IITA will investigate how rock dust performs in African soils and farming systems.

MATI began work in Zambia in 2023 and has since generated initial results. The collaboration with IITA is intended to build on this experience through structured agricultural testing in African conditions. The trials will examine how rock dust performs across different soils, crops, and application rates, and help establish where the approach is agronomically suitable. The partners will also assess how it can be used alongside synthetic fertilizers and what this could mean for soil health, crop performance, and farmer resilience.

In India, MATI has been operating for about five years and has spread natural rock dust on the fields of more than 35,000 farmers, applying more than 350,000 tons of rock dust across seven countries. The company reports that its work has been under way in India for about five years. These figures describe MATI’s programme reach; they should not be interpreted as evidence that the same results will apply in every African farming system.

The partnership with IITA is part of a broader effort to address the challenges faced by smallholder farmers in Africa, particularly in the context of climate change and rising fertilizer prices. The collaboration aims to provide farmers with a sustainable and cost-effective solution that can help them maintain and improve their yields in the face of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.