Multi-stakeholder actors convened at the Borlaug International Dialogue to discuss the link between soil health and global food security
“Soil is a living entity [and], like any other living thing, has health,” shared Dr Rattan Lal during his keynote address at the virtual side event hosted by the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) and the Sustainable Productivity Growth Coalition (SPG Coalition) at the 2023 Borlaug International Dialogue.
Dr Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and founding Director of the Carbon Management & Sequestration Center at The Ohio State University (OSU) as well as co-founder of CA4SH, received the 2020 World Food Prize for his compassionate, soil-centered approach to promoting food security for all. His nature-positive stance is complemented by hard science and an even harder bottom line that global famine is a human-made disaster that must be considered an absolutely unthinkable outcome of human-earth interactions.
This means putting soil at the heart of obtaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through holistic, multistakeholder action now and in the future.
What is soil? Word cloud generated from a poll of participants
Slide shared by CA4SH
Slide shared by CA4SH
What does soil health mean to you? Word cloud generated from a poll of participants
Joining Dr Lal during the 17 October 2023 side event, titled Multi-stakeholder action for scaling soil health globally for food security now and in the future, was a panel of experts moderated by Dr Leigh Winowiecki, CIFOR-ICRAF Soil and Land Health Global Research Lead and co-Lead of CA4SH.
Dr Winowiecki underscored that “business as usual is not an option,” and that widespread land and soil degradation, as well as the 3.2 billion people whose livelihoods are negatively affected by it, are trends that can be reversed through food systems transformation that starts from the ground up.
The need for food systems transformation is underscored daily as farmers around the world strive to nourish their families and communities while conserving and enhancing the precious natural resources on which agriculture depends, including soils. Dr Elise Golan, Director for Sustainable Development for the US Department of Agriculture, and a co-lead of the SPG Coalition, stressed the importance of sustainable agricultural productivity growth for simultaneously advancing these and other development objectives. She highlighted recent research on the need for agricultural productivity growth, including the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook (2022-2031), which found that to achieve the [SDG] Zero Hunger target while keeping agricultural emissions on track to reach the Paris Agreement targets, average global agricultural productivity would need to increase by 28% over the next decade.
Panelists of the 17 October virtual side event at the 2023 Borlaug Dialogue.
Change-Makers Working Across Sectors and Scales
The event panel emphasized the importance of partnerships in global development agendas, as well as transformative solutions for a sustainable, equitable, and nourishing food system under the 2023 Borlaug Dialogue theme Harnessing Change.
Dr Joao Campari, International Food Practice Lead at the World Wildlife Fund, discussed the role of soil health in nutrient availability as well as in water conservation and security. “Soil to me is the Planet’s most valuable environmental asset,” he said, calling for greater protection for soil to deliver its many ecosystem services. One such service is in mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis, which requires better translation between policy design and implementation on the ground.
Luckily, soil is an excellent connector for opportunities, said Kate Newbury-Hyde, Senior Manager, Agriculture & Food, World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Representing the private sector, Kate reported that the business case for investing in soil health action on the ground is increasingly clear. This is the result of multi-stakeholder action, especially when it comes to enablers of corporate action including reporting frameworks, standards and landscape-level action, such as financing mechanisms. All of these drivers must culminate in an enabling environment for land managers to safeguard the health of both working an non-working land, as they are inevitably interconnected.
On the ground, organisations such as Nature and People As One (NaPO) are supporting localised interventions to land health. Adrian Leitoro, Founder of NaPO, advocates in his work, as well as in the panel session, for working alongside local governments to ensure contextually and culturally relevant solutions are put in place that centre the lived experiences of traditional land stewards. As a youth representative who has participated in high-level dialogue for several years, Adrian understands the role of youth as agents of change, not only through advocacy and their interconnectedness but also as those who will take on global environmental challenges in the future. Adrian called for increased, meaningful engagement with youth organisations, remembering that youth is not a homogenous group and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to landscape restoration.
Wrapping up the panel, Dr Jack Hannam, Reader in Pedology and President of the British Society of Soil Science, reflected on her experience during the Soil Health Inquiry, bringing science into the UK policy space. She underscored the importance of multistakeholder collaboration, incentives to support the implementation of healthy soil practices on the ground by farmers, data and monitoring frameworks, and bridging evidence gaps. Essentially, she answered the question: How do you design a new policy? Work with everyone who will be affected.
What’s Next?
2023 has been a big year for soil and food systems. CA4SH raised awareness of the connection through two events at the UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moment and we recently participated in the Africa Food Systems Forum. The continued momentum from yesterday’s session at the 2023 Borlaug Dialogue shows not only the need but the will of food systems changemakers to look to the ground beneath their feet in transformation agendas.
Closing the session, Leigh Winowiecki announced that CA4SH will be hosting World Soil Day (December 5th) at the Food Systems Pavillion at the UNFCCC COP28. Make sure to bookmark this page for everything and anything related to soil health at the upcoming COP as it becomes available. This space is dedicated to every stakeholder working toward our common goal of healthy soils for people and the planet.
Watch a recording of the session here
Helpful links
Sustainable Agricultural Productivity Growth: What, Why and How (SPG Coalition)
Soil Investment Guidance Report (WBCSD)
COPSoil (CA4SH) Please reach out to CA4SH to contribute to this page!
