Soil fertility under threat globally

Unpublished
Pressures on the world’s limited amounts of soils available for agriculture together with land degradation are threatening global food security and endangering long-term efforts to avoid widespread famine, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, warned last month during the launch of a new Global Soil Partnership for Food security and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Rome. Competing land uses and extensive degradation are rapidly depleting the amounts of soils and water available for food production.

In Africa alone 6.3 million hectares of degraded farmland have lost their fertility and water-holding capacity and need to be regenerated to meet the demand for food of a population set to more than double in the next 40 years, the FAO stressed. In 1982 the agency adopted a World Soil Charter spelling out the basic principles and guidelines for sustainable soil management and soil protection to be followed by governments and international organizations.

Besides helping implement provisions of the World Soil Charter, the Global Soil Partnership is to create awareness among decision-makers of the importance of soils for food security and climate change issues, and provide technical solutions for soil protection and management.

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