An article on the website, Think Progress, discusses the importance of soil as a climate change issue.

During Global Soil Week discussions in Germany, 650 scientists and environmental advocates from 80 countries gathered together to “translate scientific research about soil into tangible policies for its management,” says the article.

Soils — and the microbes that live within them — store three times as much carbon as is in the atmosphere, and four and a half times as much as in all plants and animals. But with climate change, the soil stored in carbon is at risk of breaking free and entering the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, according to new research by scientists from Oregon State University.

Soils support 95 per cent of the food we eat, and agriculture is the biggest cause of soil disruption. Close to a third of the world’s soils are degraded, threatening food security. This degradation can be reversed and carbon put back into soils if they are properly managed, such as through no-till agriculture, planting cover crops, applying compost and agroforestry. Agriculture might be part of the problem, but it can also be a solution.

“Many studies have also shown that the agroforestry system can help mitigate climate change by helping with carbon sequestration. Compared to other type of cropping systems, the trees are sequestering carbon and increasing above and below ground carbon stocks.” says Elizabeth Teague, senior associate for environmental performance at Root Capital, an investing fund that works with small agribusinesses in Africa and Latin America.

But the uptake of practices such as no-till agriculture and agroforestry has been slow. In developing countries, smallholders need to find the “sweet spot” where they can maintain an agroforestry system as well as a viable farm.

Read the full story: Is 2015 The Year Soil Becomes Climate Change’s Hottest Topic?