Soil health & sustainable management crucial for food security
Published: 03:03 PM,Mar 08,2023 | EDITED : 07:03 PM,Mar 08,2023
At the two-day regional event on sustainable soil management in the Near East and North Africa region, the focus is on soil health.
On the first day, on Tuesday, a declaration reaffirming the importance of sustainable soil management and soil health for the NENA region was presented for endorsement.
There is an urgency to the matter because soil health can impact food security which already faces a challenge from climate change. The farmers also have been facing fertiliser crisis due to geopolitical situation and oil price in addition to Covid- 19 impact, which made the price of fertiliser go up three folds.
Many international participants have been invited to review the progress made towards sustainable soil management in the region and to propose their action plans for 2030. The meeting has been organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in association with Global Soil Partnership.
Ronald Vargas Rojas, Land and Water Officer, Secretary of the Global Soil Partnership, FAO said, 'The challenge we are addressing is soil degradation in this region. We are pursuing soil health, but this is not easy because there are so many related issues.' He said that in the NENA region, one particular challenge is water scarcity, however, 'If we do not have healthy soil, even with a lot of water, we will not be able to produce the food we need, as well as some of the ecosystem services the soul provide for us.' What the regional soil experts are trying to achieve in Muscat is first to understand the types of soil the region has and the status of the soil.
Currently, soil mapping and soil assessment are being done to understand the specific problems.
'Based on these findings, we will work together to develop the capacity in every country so they can implement sustainable management practices that would support our farmers because they are the ones dealing with these challenges everyday. So we need to encourage them to practice good management, but they also need the means to make it happen,' he explained.
According to him, solutions could be, for example, understanding how to stop soil erosion or, as in the case of soil salinity implementing methods to see how to reduce it.
Yet another method is reducing the soil compaction so they can store water.
'We are looking forward to some practical solutions. There are many successful examples regionally as well as globally. We are trying to bring these concepts and upscale them,' he noted.
The timely Muscat Declaration on Sustainable Soil Management in the MENA region is meant to foster the establishment of a common ground for the NENA region to translate political will into coordinated and concrete actions aimed at scaling up sustainable soil management and improving soil health within the region.
@lakshmioman
On the first day, on Tuesday, a declaration reaffirming the importance of sustainable soil management and soil health for the NENA region was presented for endorsement.
There is an urgency to the matter because soil health can impact food security which already faces a challenge from climate change. The farmers also have been facing fertiliser crisis due to geopolitical situation and oil price in addition to Covid- 19 impact, which made the price of fertiliser go up three folds.
Many international participants have been invited to review the progress made towards sustainable soil management in the region and to propose their action plans for 2030. The meeting has been organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in association with Global Soil Partnership.
Ronald Vargas Rojas, Land and Water Officer, Secretary of the Global Soil Partnership, FAO said, 'The challenge we are addressing is soil degradation in this region. We are pursuing soil health, but this is not easy because there are so many related issues.' He said that in the NENA region, one particular challenge is water scarcity, however, 'If we do not have healthy soil, even with a lot of water, we will not be able to produce the food we need, as well as some of the ecosystem services the soul provide for us.' What the regional soil experts are trying to achieve in Muscat is first to understand the types of soil the region has and the status of the soil.
Currently, soil mapping and soil assessment are being done to understand the specific problems.
'Based on these findings, we will work together to develop the capacity in every country so they can implement sustainable management practices that would support our farmers because they are the ones dealing with these challenges everyday. So we need to encourage them to practice good management, but they also need the means to make it happen,' he explained.
According to him, solutions could be, for example, understanding how to stop soil erosion or, as in the case of soil salinity implementing methods to see how to reduce it.
Yet another method is reducing the soil compaction so they can store water.
'We are looking forward to some practical solutions. There are many successful examples regionally as well as globally. We are trying to bring these concepts and upscale them,' he noted.
The timely Muscat Declaration on Sustainable Soil Management in the MENA region is meant to foster the establishment of a common ground for the NENA region to translate political will into coordinated and concrete actions aimed at scaling up sustainable soil management and improving soil health within the region.
@lakshmioman