Soil health is the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture, and its impact extends far beyond the confines of the farm. As we enter the festive season, it's a fitting time to reflect on the invaluable gifts of soil health. These include policies, advocates, media influence, scientific expertise, and farmer dedication—all crucial in driving progress toward a healthier, more resilient agricultural ecosystem. Let’s celebrate these contributions and recognize their role in safeguarding our future.

The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) is rooted in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Since our official launch in 2021, CA4SH has amassed a membership of over 200 multistakeholder organizations and collaborated with countless partners.

This year, the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNCCD was focused on a people-centred approach to accelerating action on land and drought resilience, themed Our Land. Our Future.

Since healthy soil is essential to land and drought resilience, and provides co-benefits that link with all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the CA4SH network came together for a record engagement at COP16 to advocate for scaling global soil health.

On 5th December 2024, World Soil Day, YPARD Zambia hosted a YPARD Café dubbed "Youth Led Interventions for Soil Health and Climate Resilience". The event, which took place through an online platform, was meant to Convene a diverse group of young leaders to discuss youth led soil health interventions for climate resilience explore diverse opportunities available for youth to make impact in the soil health sector and foster youth engagement to elevate soil health interventions for climate resilience in national dialogues.

5 December 2024, on World Soil Day, the Coalition of Action for Soil Health (CA4SH) is pleased and privileged to share the latest creative writing initiative from Eliseus Bamporineza of #Youth4Soil called My Family Cares for Soil.

Eliseus is spearheading a much-needed and much-enjoyed space of creative advocacy in the global soil health movement. His dedication to his craft is evident through his independent writing and ever-growing bibliography.

My Family Cares for Soil is an engaging and educational booklet that follows a young girl’s journey as she explores soil health monitoring alongside family members. Each family member uses specific tools, like pH meters, moisture meters, and drones, to gather and analyze data on soil quality, helping the child understand the importance of caring for soil to improve farming outcomes.

Countless CA4SH partners attended the UNFCCC COP29 this month, so we reached out to ask how it went!

Despite this being an incredibly busy time of year, we received several responses from partners who highlighted the highs, the lows, and what still needs to be done to embed soil health more deeply in agenda set forth at the Rio Conventions.

Here are their reflections, in their own words.

Having acquired some basic understanding of soil health in Part 1 of the series, the Stars in Our Soil: Understanding Soil, Sussana Phiri spends this installment delving into the science behind soil testing, with examples and resources for those looking to start troubleshooting own farms.

14-18 October 2024: The World Food Forum (WFF) was held at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. It served as a powerful platform, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders to leverage the power of intergenerational collaborations, partnerships, and action across policy, science, innovation, culture, and investment. 

CA4SH members joined a series of youth-led dialogues, workshops, and networking events to highlight the transformative potential of soil health as the foundation of sustainable, resilient food systems. With over 200 members - including farmer organizations, youth, policymakers, scientists, and NGOs - the Coalition is committed to translating science into action, fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration, and amplifying the vital role of youth in global soil health initiatives. 

The Stars in Our Soil is a 6-part series highlighting the scientific and social elements of the soil that are synonymous to the stars; each of them unique but when they are together, they light up the universe. 

In this article, Sussana Terieza Phiri (#Youth4Soil, YPARD Zambia, CA4SH Intern) explores the physical properties of soil, and some of the implications for agricultural growers.

23 October 2024: The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) co-hosted a virtual side event with CIFOR-ICRAF and the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) at the Norman A. Borlaug Dialogue of the World Food Prize (WFP). The event highlighted the critical importance of leveraging robust soil health monitoring methodologies to answer key knowledge gaps on the impact of land management and landscape restoration practices on soil health and to translate this information into policy.

From 19-26th September 2024, the inaugural cohort of the Youth Academy on Climate Adaptation & Leadership met in Nairobi, Kenya to strengthen their skills around youth leadership and climate adaptation.

The Academy was officially launched via a partnership between the Global Centre on Adaptation, the University of Nairobi, and the University of Groningen. The University of Nairobi hosted the 62 students, government officials, youth organizations, and other youth stakeholders who were selected to join the Academy. Among them was #Youth4Soil member Eliseus Bamporineza who shared some reflections in a Q&A with CA4SH.

The IFRC Limitless Innovation Challenge is a chance for youth around the World to showcase their innovations for climate and the environment. Daniel Chavo Kisekka of the #Youth4Soil Initiative has submitted his climate solution Nurtavest to support smallholder farmers in Uganda, and the World over.

We are calling on the CA4SH network to help support him by engaging with his pitch video, which could place him in the top 100 innovations!

Upendra Bhusal is a student of Agriculture at the Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal. He is a member of the CA4SH #Youth4Soil initiative, IAAS, YPARD, FAYI, Leo Club, and more.

Learn about his unique approach to scaling soil health in his community, and his plans to scale this approach in 2024/2025.

Eliseus Bamporineza is an East African Community Youth fellow, writer, poet, and staunch advocate for youth empowerment. He is a dedicated and visionary leader committed to driving positive change in the fields of education, climate resilience, agribusiness and diplomacy across Africa. Through different initiatives, such as Feed2Care where he advocates for quality food for all, and #Youth4Soil where he gives voice to life under our feet, he is committed to raising concerns about soil health threats and the need for its protection.