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.

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.

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.

11-22 NOVEMBER 2024: The UN Climate Convention COP29 was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, themed In Solidarity for a Green World. The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) is a motivated, multi-stakeholder coalition working to strengthen, facilitate and accelerate the adoption and scaling of soil health restoration practices. Soil health drives productivity and economic growth, rural livelihoods, biodiversity protection, and mitigation and adaptation to the climate crisis.

At COP29, CA4SH convened members, partners, and other stakeholders to underscore the critical importance of including soil in the climate proceedings. CA4SH held and participated in several sessions that teased apart the intricacies of scaling global soil health on the ground through finance, policy, support for farmers and land managers, and more. Keeping soil health on the climate agenda is an overarching objective of CA4SH, and at COP29, the power of multistakeholder voices was heard. Read on for an overview of our engagement!

The following case study is one of 20 that illustrate the Food Systems Call to Action in motion. Each story demonstrates innovative solutions and collaborative efforts across sectors, geographies, and communities, highlighting how food systems are being transformed to support people, nature, and climate. Together, these examples underscore the global momentum towards resilient, equitable, and sustainable food systems.

Smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa are already witnessing the devastating impacts of climate breakdown on their soils and crop yields, and by extension their livelihoods and wellbeing. 

This issue isn’t unique to sub-Saharan Africa. Across the globe smallholder farmers are contending with ever more erratic temperatures and weather patterns as a result of the climate emergency. In the face of failing harvests and limited income, most smallholders lack the means to build resilience to these climate shocks.

Why is climate finance important?

What's the cost of building climate resilience for smallholder farmers?

Learn more and access campaign assets here

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. 

Watch this Food Systems Call to Action endorser network webinar to hear from expert speakers on insights and expectations of the 3 Rio Convention Summits in 2024 – CBD COP16, COP29, and CCD COP16 – and discuss a set of high-level food systems messages and asks, building on the Food Systems Call to Action.

The Food Systems Call to Action raises the urgent need to take action on food systems to deliver for people, nature, and climate. Launched at COP28 by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and endorsed by hundreds of food systems actors, it will remain open until COP30. The Call to Action outlines a shared vision and priority set of actions from a broad and diverse multi-stakeholder community.

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.

2-6 SEPTEMBER 2024: More than 3000 people from around the world attended the Africa Food Systems (AFS) Forum in Kigali, Rwanda to reflect on progress and a way forward for food security on the continent.

The newly-announced list, published by the World Food Prize Foundation, features 38 changemakers working to improve global food systems.

Among the distinguised cohort is CA4SH Lead and Co-Founder, Dr Leigh Ann Winowiecki! Congratulations, Leigh!

Soil health is a fundamental component of agricultural sustainability and environmental stewardship. In this article, CA4SH partner Samuel Bamidele explores how enhancing soil health can bolster resilience against the adverse effects of climate change and outlines related legislation from the United States.

Samuel holds a Master of Science from the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Delaware. Hailing from Ibadan, Nigeria, Samuel's academic trajectory has been characterized by a profound dedication to soil science and agriculture.

Healthy soil is the cornerstone of sustainable development, playing a crucial role in providing ecosystem services, achieving food and nutrition security for all, and climate regulation. Its significance can be underscored through the lens of the three Rio Conventions: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Each convention addresses a distinct but interconnected aspect of environmental sustainability, but what remains constant is the critical role that scaling global soil health plays in achieving the objectives of the conventions.

To hone in on soil as a holistic approach to global environmental challenges, we have summarized some of the ways that healthy soil is central to the objectives of the Rio Conventions and outlined some of the key ways forward.

From June 3-13, 2024 the 60th session of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was convened in Bonn, Germany. These sessions serve as a crucial mid-year event, laying the groundwork for COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. This gathering is an essential platform for young professionals to observe and get involved in negotiations, host and participate in side events to raise important issues, and to amplify youth voices from all over the world.

Read the full story from YPARD

In an era where soil degradation threatens food security and environmental stability worldwide, the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) is at the forefront of promoting biochar as a circular solution. The 2023 Global Biochar Market Report, co-authored with the US Biochar Initiative (USBI), presents an in-depth analysis of the biochar industry’s growth and its crucial role in improving soil health on a global scale.

From afar, scaling soil health by switching from traditional monocrop agricultural systems to regenerative systems may seem as easy as planting the right plants in the right spot. However transitioning to new systems usually sees farmers’ yields decrease before they increase, which can be a limiting factor for farmers who don’t have a financial cushion to fall back on. Support is needed to help them bridge the gap.

CA4SH is a multi-stakeholder partnership of member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organizations, multilateral organizations, NGOs, and more. Drawing on this wealth of knowledge, we organized the second installation of our 2024 Webinar Series: The road ahead for soil health action to explore different mechanisms to invest in soil health, making sure these investments reach smallholder farmers.

March 14th, Accelerating Nature-based Solutions Conference: In a call to address the pressing issue of soil degradation and its detrimental effects on food systems and livelihoods, a recent event co-hosted by the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) and CIFOR-ICRAF underscored the urgency for multi-stakeholder action to promote healthy soil ecosystems across Africa. The gathering, which brought together diverse stakeholders from farming communities, science, policy, development, conservation, and the private sector, emphasized the critical role of soil in sustainable and regenerative food systems.

CA4SH is a multi stakeholder partnership of member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organizations, multilateral organizations, NGOs, and more. Drawing on this wealth of knowledge, we organized the first installation of our 2024 Webinar Series: The road ahead for soil health action.

SIANI is glad to announce that the call for new expert groups 2024-25 is now open. If you are a cross-sector team planning a project to transform food systems, you may be eligible for funding as a SIANI expert group. Submit your application by 19 May 2024.

From 26 February to 1 March 2024, the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) took place at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss global environmental policy amongst the 193 Member States.

The discussions centred on how multilateralism can help tackle the triple planetary environmental crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste. Luckily, we know well of a solution to these challenges and, indeed, all 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: scaling soil health, globally.

Learn more about CA4SH engagements at UNEA-6.