Soil is a primary requirement for growing crops and livestock feed, among other qualities, it stores and provides a medium to store the nutrients required for plant growth and helps rid the earth of excess carbon. Loss of soil means loss of these capabilities reflected in adverse effects on the economy and quality of human life on earth.

The FAO-led Global Soil Partnership reports that 75 billion tonnes (Pg) of soil are eroded every year from arable lands worldwide, which equates to an estimated financial loss of US$400 billion per year.

The earth’s land mass is much smaller than we started with due to agricultural activities and the development of megacities.  About 40% of the world’s land has already been taken over by agriculture while a huge part of what is left is locked beneath the concrete and asphalt of developing urban areas.

Increased Farming activities have caused a change in the soil structure leaving the soil open to erosion and degradation. Erosion is not only identified by huge gullies in the land, according to Ronald Vargas, secretary of the global soil partnership at the FAO Rome, but the loss of organic carbon and pollution also build up will go unnoticed even though they are symptoms of soil degradation. An unavoidable poor crop yield afterwards will be the only indication that the land has lost its quality.

The most fertile layer of our arable farmlands is the topsoil; about 95% of the world’s food is grown here (Cosier, 2019). It takes centuries for nature to generate fertile topsoil, this is a time that mankind does not have as intensive farming which involves disturbance of the soil structure through tilling and the use of chemical (artificial) fertilizers is predominantly used to feed the growing population, hence we are losing the topsoil faster than nature can replace it.

An urgent intervention by humans is required to support the efforts of nature to regenerate the soil.

This calls for increased use of scientific innovations in food production in the areas of:

• Development of perennial variants of crops.  Perennials have an extensive root system which holds together soil particles and naturally gives multiple harvests without the need to till. A reduction in the frequency of tilling will reduce the rate of degradation.
• Introduction of microbe mixtures that are capable of reviving soil which has lost its nutrients.
• Growing vegetables in rows covered by plastic conserves moisture and reduces the need for irrigation. The plastic also helps to control the runoff of surface water, slowing its movement and reducing damage to soil (Brown, 2018).
• The use of chemical fertilizers is the second largest cause of soil degradation after erosion. Adopting the use of bio-nutrients through SusChem which are derived from food wastes negate this risk.

Age-old sustainable farming techniques such as crop rotation cycles incorporating cover crops, legumes and fallow land are still of use in the fight to regain our lost soil.

With the World Food Tracker you can create a farm account when signing up where you can start creating your farm plan which will enable you to improve your sustainability efforts.

Reference list

1. Borrelli, P., Robinson, D.A., Fleischer, L.R., Lugato, E., Ballabio, C., Alewell, C., Meusburger, K., Modugno, S., Schütt, B., Ferro, V., Bagarello, V., Oost, K.V., Montanarella, L. and Panagos, P. (2017). An assessment of the global impact of 21st century land use change on soil erosion. Nature Communications, [online] 8(1). doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02142-7.
2. Brown, J. (2018). Innovations in Reducing Soil Erosion | Green Lodging News. [online] Greenlodgingnews.com. Available at: https://www.greenlodgingnews.com/innovations-in-reducing-soil-erosion/.
3. Cosier, S. (2019). The world needs topsoil to grow 95% of its food – but it’s rapidly disappearing. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/30/topsoil-farming-agriculture-food-toxic-america.
4. Gray, R. (2019). Why soil is disappearing from farms. [online] www.bbc.com. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/why-soil-is-disappearing-from-farms/.
5. Willett, W., Rockström, J., Loken, B., Springmann, M., Lang, T., Vermeulen, S., Garnett, T., Tilman, D., DeClerck, F., Wood, A., Jonell, M., Clark, M., Gordon, L.J., Fanzo, J., Hawkes, C., Zurayk, R., Rivera, J.A., De Vries, W., Majele Sibanda, L. and Afshin, A. (2019). Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet, [online] 393(10170), pp.447–492. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)31788-4.