On 19 November 2024, CIFOR-ICRAF, RTI International, the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Sustainable Productivity Growth (SPG) Coalition co-hosted a side event at the US Centre at the UN Climate Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

Speakers stressed the importance of investing in soil health, sustainable agricultural productivity growth, and green fertilizer solutions to strengthen food and nutrition security, restore ecosystems, and drive sustainable, inclusive economic growth.

As a continuation of the organization’s first symposium this year in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the center’s 50th anniversary, the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) hosted a second symposium, “Future Proofing: Unified Action for Soil Health and Food Security,” on November 4 at KIT in Amsterdam.

The event brought together global agriculture experts, policymakers, leaders, and stakeholders to explore pathways for strengthening soil health and enhancing food security amidst a rapidly evolving landscape of environmental and economic challenges, in addition to the challenges of a growing population.

Read the full story and watch the event recordings on the IFDC website

Healthy soil is a complex web of nutrient recycling from plants, animals and insects, alike. Organic material in soil is absolutely imperative to the natural processes that provide vital ecosystem services like water filtration and crop growth, and it enters the soil from various stages in the soil food web.

Despite being a product of decomposition processes, healthy soil is never dirty, but it can be unclean. With natural processes at the core of their approach, biotech company Nutrition Technologies has found a way to intervene against plant pathogens that commonly threaten agricultural soils. 

“At the Africa Climate Summit, the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), with support from AICCRA and the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), convened an important side event ahead of the African Union's Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit later this year.”

This story was originally posted by AICCRA.

Bringing together stakeholders representing the private sector, NGOs, academia, governments and more, CA4SH contributed to three events at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF) between 4th and 5th September to discuss what scaling soil health looks like, and the vision for Africa’s soils we are working steadily towards.

“West Africa fertilizer policy decision-makers and experts issued an official Ministerial Declaration on Fertilizer and Soil Health in West Africa at the close of a high-level round table organized by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with technical and funding support by IFDC’s Feed the Future EnGRAIS project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Bank, respectively.”

“As part of the Assessment of State Fertilizer Scenario and Promoting Efficient Nutrient Management (ASPEN) project, the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Government of Assam, Punjab Agricultural University, Feed the Future, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and National Agro Industries, have developed a seed-and-fertilizer drill.”