CA4SH, CIFOR-ICRAF, Varda & Norad partner on a pilot initiative to advance soil knowledge exchange
Healthy soil is essential to agricultural productivity, rural livelihoods, land erosion and degradation resilience, enhancing the efficiency of water and fertilizer, and so much more. To efficiently and effectively scale healthy soil, we need to know what is going on below the surface, but as the results of a recent pilot project from CIFOR-ICRAF, Varda, the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) and funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) have demonstrated, accessing this information is a complex issue.
The pilot initiative was implemented in the latter half of 2024 and culminated in an insights sharing webinar hosted by CA4SH on 14 January 2025. The pilot initiative sought to lay the groundwork for increasing access to collaborative and conducive soil data, information, and knowledge in Kenya and Tanzania. The pilot consisted of several activities aimed at garnering insight into the soil health data ecosystem in East Africa and fostering collaboration amongst diverse stakeholders toward seamless soil data exchange.
Pilot Timeline
9 August 2024 | Start of the pilot
28 August - 30 October 2024 | Survey on soil health data needs and interests from diverse stakeholders in Kenya and Tanzania
22 - 23 October 2024 | Nairobi Stakeholder Workshop
24 - 25 October 2024 | Tanzania Stakeholder Workshop
14 January 2025 | Webinar hosted by the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health
25 January 2025 | End of pilot project
“Many organizations face challenges due to inefficient, restricted and lack of transparent data,” shared Simone Sala, Director of Global Soil and Ecosystem Solutions, VARDA. The SoilHive Platform from the ag-tech organization Varda, provides a consolidated and streamlined space for data sharing, but there are several data gaps that still need filling to make the most of it.
The pilot project collected feedback from diverse national, regional and global soil health initiatives, including farmers, youth, the private sector, governments, NGOs, civil society organizations, and more, with a focus on Kenya and Tanzania, through an online survey and in-country workshops. Stakeholders emphasised the importance of a holistic set of indicators to assess soil health, including livelihood and social data, land management, and historical insights.
“There are diverse data needs, different objectives related to soil management across countries, requiring a wider range of soil health indicators - including social, economic and environmental indicators.”
Simone Sala, Director of Global Soil and Ecosystem Solutions, VARDA
Some of the key issues to effectively using soil health data that were identified include the fragmentation of datasets (both in terms of quantity and quality of available data), paywalls, a lack of exchange, and capacity to translate data into actionable recommendations. This has major implications for the African continent which is faced with the triple challenge of land degradation, climate change, and food and nutrition security, all of which rely on healthy soil.
“[It is] a waste of time and resources if we don’t share data,” commented Åsta Ingvild Langhus, Senior Advisor for Food Security at Norad. Sharing data is crucial to ensuring that data collection only has to happen once, and to enhance the success of regional frameworks.
“It’s important to have an integrated approach in the AFSH-Action Plan and the Kampala Declaration,” said Dr Henk van Duijn, CEO of the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC). “All these frameworks depend on available data. The data we have available on the continent - at country level, regional level, continental level - should be shared, made more available and standardized,” he concluded.
Workshop participants for the workshop in Kenya
Workshop participants for the workshop in Tanzania
There is currently no comprehensive, consistent, and integrated soil information system in Africa that offers compatible information across datasets and geographies. Public and private datasets exist, but the nature of the soil data ecosystem in East Africa remains elusive.
To better understand the needs and interests of potential data hub end-users in East Africa, the pilot initiative collected use cases for SoilHive, and brought youth, conservation and government perspectives into the knowledge sharing webinar to reflect on their experiences and needs.
The Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) was represented by Hildelitha Msita, Manager for Natural Resource Management & Agricultural Engineering Research, who shared: “We use soil information systems for research purposes, for example for soil suitability mapping, for fertilizer accommodation rates for different fertilizer products, and also for providing farmers with information on what they can produce and where, based on our research.”
Youth representatives Jonathan Gichuru (YPARD and Youth4Soil) and Joshua Lazier (African Youth Pastoralist Initiative) underscored that youth are key to translating soil health information to smallholder farmers. “We are in an era of digital transformation and youth are leading the way,” said Jonathan, who emphasised the need for connecting soil health with national priorities, such as the Nationally Determined Contributions, and equipping youth with the capacity and the tools to monitor and scale soil health. Joshua Lazier expanded on this point by stressing the need to involve Indigenous people in these processes to make sure that data is relevant to their contexts, needs and interests.
“We need to integrate the scientific way with the Indigenous local knowledge. Science can learn from these communities. We need to involve the communities, the people who will be the end-user”
Joshua Lazier, Africa Youth Pastoralist Initiative
Sharing from the conservation perspective, Bernice Sainepo, Agricultural Ecologist for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) discussed the role of data in prioritizing efforts and accurately predicting changes in ecosystem health so that initiatives can be proactive rather than reactive. TNC is especially interested in applying participatory approaches to data collection and use to ensure that conservation leads to improved livelihoods and inclusive outcomes.
A key outcome of the webinar, and of the pilot initiative as a whole, is the enhanced understanding of the role of robust, accessible and inclusive soil information. “There are several challenges that have been brought to the table including fragmentation of data, making it difficult to analyse, access and use the data efficiently,” summarized Ester Miglio, a Soil Scientist with Varda. “There is also a question on capacity, as dumping data on people is not always the solution considering stakeholders sometimes lack skills to interpret the data properly, analyze it and make informed decisions… We are trying to move from a soil information system to a soil information service. We are focusing on delivering actionable insights and user-focused tools to allow people to make more informed decisions and to use the data.”
The next phase for this collaboration will centre on harmonizing standards and datasets, vizibilizing the soil data ecosystem, aligning all stakeholders at all levels, building capacity, and fostering awareness of the critical role of soil health.
“It’s all about future food security and economy for all of us,” concluded Åsta Ingvild Langhus. “The health of our soil is a fundamental piece, a main ingredient for the source of food we all depend on. This is crucial for all of us.”
