How Healthy Soils Can Boost Yields and Mitigate Climate Change

Soil health is crucial for growing food and combatting climate change. Healthy soils can sequester and absorb planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide.

According to the World Economic Forum, around 95% of food production depends on healthy soil, but unfortunately, one-third of the world’s agricultural land is degraded. As the need grows to increase food production and mitigate climate change, there is an urgent need to transform agricultural practices, one that promotes and protects soil health to address the world’s two problems – the need to increase food production and address climate change.

Achieving entails farmers’ access to tailored finance, technology, and technical support to transition to growing sustainable food at scale.

Soil health is “the continued capacity of a soil to function as a vital, living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans” (Doran & Zeiss, 2000). Soil health seeks to maintain or improve the different functions that soils perform. These functions can include the retention and cycling of nutrients, climate regulation, supporting biodiversity, and producing food and forage.

The WEF article notes that soil is one of earth’s most essential but under-appreciated finite resources. In the past, soil health has remained in the domain of the scientific community until the recent disruption to global food supplies when policymakers recognised the importance of soil in ensuring food security. This increased awareness has resulted in many international initiatives to protect and enhance soil health.

The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization identified poor soil health as a significant threat to global food security and a contributor to climate change. Degraded soils widen the gap between crops’ current and potential yields, encourage deforestation, and decrease the soil’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide.

Africa exemplifies the impact of degraded soils due to poor nutrient management and its long mining history, which have lowered soil fertility and health. However, the continent also possesses excellent agricultural potential.

The decline in soil health conditions and agricultural productivity in South Africa and Zambia highlights the need for improvements. In South Africa, soil erosion is extensive, affecting a large area with varying severity due to intensive farming and overgrazing practices.

The World Economic Forum’s community paper, “Scaling Technology Adoption for Soil Health: A Focus on Africa,” outlines vital strategies to boost soil health and fertility, ultimately enhancing food production and the soil’s role in mitigating climate change. Launched by the Food Innovators Network during the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali in May 2024, this paper presents five key recommendations that could significantly impact food security, agricultural yields, and soil health.

To arrive at these recommendations, the authors addressed two critical questions: What factors can empower farmers to make informed decisions about soil health? What practices and inputs should be promoted to make a tangible difference in soil health? Additionally, the paper highlights promising investment opportunities in various innovations within this essential sector.

These recommendations include:

1. Enhance extension services: Consulting farmers on what agronomic advice could strengthen their capabilities (e.g., informed crop planning and risk management) is an effective measure for supporting farmers in adopting sustainable farming practices, alongside recommendations on accessing financial resources.
2. Digitalise agriculture: Ensuring the availability of data – on the delivery of inputs (e.g. fertilisers and seeds), extension services (including those related to training on climate-smart agriculture) and markets (e.g. information on buyers) – would provide the building blocks for future digital agriculture.
3. Apply climate-smart agriculture: To mitigate the effects of erosion on agricultural lands, soil erosion management interventions must be enabled.
4. Reverse fertility decline: Increasing the availability of fertilisers is essential to addressing nutrient depletion across the African continent.
5. Research and develop other high-quality inputs: Working to create high-value inputs – such as quality seeds and cultivars from crops adapted to local conditions

The paper’s recommendations are based on analyses of the agricultural potential and readiness to adopt technologies for soil health of seven African countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa.

Read the entire paper: Scaling Technology Adoption for Soil Health: A Focus on Africa.