Sustainable soil management key to increasing food security

Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General QU Dongyu has described the relationship between soil and water as deep and the “foundation of our agrifood systems, our environment, and our very existence.”

On the occasion of the World Soil Day last week on December 5, the FAO chief repeated his call for the need to place soil and water conservation as a priority in all international agendas.

“Our soils are under pressure. The world faces a global, collective and urgent challenge –preserving the critical balance of soil and water.”

During the FAO-hosted Global Symposium on Soils and Water in October last year, QU said soils are a kind of “virtual” Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

Complex balances

Soils are deeply intertwined in many of the formal objectives and underscore the many complex balances to which the foundation of healthy terrestrial ecosystems contribute.

Soil and water are again featuring prominently at the ongoing United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is one of major research institutions participating at this global summit on land degradation. ICARDA’s innovative approaches to soil, water and agronomy – carbon-smart farming – are reshaping dryland farming, offering potential for intensified but net-zero food production.

The commitment is based on the realisation that given climate change and growing populations, sustainable soil management is more critical than ever to increasing food production, while lowering agricultural emissions. By 2050, the global population is set to approach 10 billion people. Yet, many countries are falling short in modernising their food systems to improve efficiency.

That’s why ICARDA is looking beyond food production by offering climate smart agri-innovations that emphasise stable yield, better water management and soil health while improving carbon sequestration to deliver sustainable and ecological farming in vulnerable hot and dry regions.

In making carbon-smart farming breakthroughs for drylands, ICARDA researchers have noted that the traditional drip irrigation may save water, but the energy it demands often carries a carbon cost, resulting in raised environmental footprint, especially when powered by fossil fuels. In collaboration with Morocco’s Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), ICARDA has developed ultra-low-energy (ULE) drippers that operate at 85 per cent lower activation pressure.

When integrated with renewable energy sources and deployed hydroponic systems, as tested in Morocco, these systems reduced energy needs by 40-70 per cent, capital cost by 20-40 per cent and GHG emissions by 64 per cent. Also, within ICARDA’s Arabian Peninsula Regional Programme, ULE drippers were integrated into hydroponic tomato production within net houses. This integration resulted in an impressive 60 per cent reduction in energy consumption. Such innovations show that with the right tools, soil moisture and productivity can be enhanced without compromising the environment. The Global Soils Partnership based at the FAO headquarters in Rome has an intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS), composed of 27 top soil experts from around the world who work closely with FAO’s Land and Water Division.

Solid foundation

FAO is helping the African Union (AU) draft a harmonised legal framework to ensure the continent has a solid foundation for safeguarding its soil and water resources.

“Water is the king of foods,” AU Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Development Josefa Sacko told the Global Symposium on Soils and Water, quoting a Malagasy proverb.

“Water and soil form the bedrock of our survival, our economy, and our future.”

The AU Commission in May hosted the Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit that saw farmer organisations, developing agencies, NGOs, policymakers, scholars and scientists and donor discussions hold discussions under the theme ‘Listen to the Land’.

As the world marked World Soil Day, with the theme ‘Caring for Soils: Measure, Monitor Manage’, ICARDA noted that we are not just celebrating the soil underfoot, but also the farmers and innovators driving change. By caring for soils, we nurture ecosystems and build pathways to a net-zero future. Every innovation counts, and each one brings us closer to a world where agriculture becomes part of the climate solution.

Net-zero farming

ICARDA’s innovations serve as a blueprint for sustainable and net-zero farming. Integrating smart irrigation, regenerative practices, precision fertilization, and crop diversification could reduce agricultural GHG missions by more than 50 per cent.

Yet challenges remain – scaling these sustainable solutions to reach more farmers will require substantial investments in research, infrastructure, and capacity building. For regenerative practices like conservation agriculture to be effective on a larger scale, efforts must go beyond initial trials and demonstrations and target farmers’ adoption of technology.

This includes enhancing agricultural infrastructure, such as access to suitable machinery for no-till farming, capacity strengthening of local service providers. By building more robust support systems and investing in technological innovation and farmer training, we can create the conditions necessary for widespread adoption and lasting impact.

Experts and civil society organisations at the UN Climate Summit (COP28) in Dubai, UAE, urged world leaders to recognise the role of healthy soils in achieving the Paris Agreement, calling for long-overlooked systems to feature in plans for more sustainable food systems.

Representatives from the scientific, finance, policy, corporate and grassroots sectors made the case for sustainable land management at an event organised by the Nairobi-based Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), which so-leads the Coalition of Action for Sol Health (CA4SH).