An article on SciDev.Net advocates for promoting soil health to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Humans are intricately tied to soil. Ninety-five percent of our food and fibre comes from it, and over 99.9 per cent of our fresh drinking water passes through the soil,” says the article, yet “many of us fail to consider the importance of preserving the health of the earth’s soils”.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 65 per cent of soils are degraded, leading to poor harvests, malnutrition and chronic hunger for millions.

The article suggests that strategies to promote soil health, such as agroforestry, intercropping and composting, can increase productivity, particularly where smallholder farmers lack access to inputs, tools, training and finance. These strategies may also help communities increase their resilience to environmental shocks which will be all the more important in a changing climate.

A number of initiatives that are helping to restore soil health are outlined in the article, such as work by the One Acre Fund in encouraging farmers in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania to integrate Grevillea trees into their farming systems.

“If we truly want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals we’ve set for ourselves, we can’t afford to not focus on soil health, this year and every year,” say David Guerena and Margaret Vernon from One Acre Fund.

Read the full story: Focusing on soil health to achieve SDGs