Adaptive Soil Management

Today I want to focus on the initiative of improving Soil Management. Other strategies to adapt African agriculture to climate change include ‘Agricultural Water Control’ and ‘Climate-Risk Management’ which I will talk about in a few weeks time.

 

The Atlantic 

The process of soil depletion due to climate effects and the prospect of rapid population growth create a worrying picture of the future of food security in Africa (2 billion in 2050 according to estimations). Even though there is much arable land in Africa, a large share of this potential remains unexploited. Without arguing for or against intensification in Africa’s agriculture (the various pro and cons are subject to debate), it is undeniable that the decrease in fertility in land that is currently farmed will threaten many livelihoods.

The initiatives out there that deal with adaptive solutions for the issue of soil degradation centre around the mission of integrated management of soil fertility, made up of new approaches to ‘diagnosis’ and ‘technical responses’:

 

Soil Atlas of Africa 2015

As you can see on the map, the main causes of soil degradation in Africa include water erosion, chemical phenomena such as nutrient loss or soil acidification and physical phenomena such as water logging, soil compaction,… (AAA 2016, 5). Erosive rainfalls or windstorms can lead to accelerated soil erosion by water, this detachment and transportation of soil away from the land can have severe effects and is one of the main reasons of soil degradation.

One major solution approach that is offered by several initiatives is the development of ‘information systems’ that can assess the current state of soil-fertility (e.g. soil fertility and crop fertilisation observatories). On the basis of these information systems, technical responses (‘Systems management’ and ‘Diversification of nutrient sources’) can be implemented that meet the specific requirements of the soil at hand. 

The technique of ‘System management’ describes the practice of implementing various soil specific techniques - such as adopting rotations between food and forage legumes to make nitrogen more available; use of specific fertilisers; improving acid and saline soils,… (AAA 2016)             

‘Diversification of nutrient sources’ encompasses techniques with which wastewater and organic waste can be reused, and development of a fertiliser market (AAA 2016). Finally, the assistance of farmers to implement these systems is vital in ensuring their efficient and long-term application. The Soil Fertility Initiative (SFI), led by the World Bank and the FAO is one major project that promotes the adoption of appropriate technologies for improved soil fertility in 20 African countries. 

An initiative I found particularly interesting is FertiMap, which is a collaborative project that digitally maps the fertility of agricultural soils in Morocco in order to make recommendations for the specific application of fertilisers (AAA 2016, 8). This initiative has been very effective in terms of productivity – it led to a 30% increase in productivity on the concerned lands.

What all these initiatives have in common is the promotion of information dissemination, which is vital in increasing the application of adaptive measures. Another common problem is the lack of monitoring data which hinders the application of adaptive systems.

 

References: 

 

AAA, (2016). THE INITIATIVE FOR THE ADAPTATION OF AFRICAN AGRICULTURE TO CLIMATE CHANGE. [online] Available at: http://www.aaainitiative.org/sites/aaainitiative.org/files/AAA_livre%20blanc_ENG.pdf [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].

 

Soil Atlas of Africa. JRC 2015