regional soil policies and future of soil science

By:Martin Yemefack, PhD

President of Africa Soil Science Society (ASSS)

Senior Research Officer (MR) at IRAD and UMMISCO Univ. Yaounde 1

Email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Regional Soil Policies and future of

Soil Science

1 Rome, 07/09/2011Keynote Speech, Martin Yemefack

GSP launching event, FAO

Rome

About the Africa Soil Science Society

The ASSS was founded in 1986 as a non-profit makingscientific organization grouping scientists working in the areaof soil science and application of soil information in Africa. Itpromotes and fosters Soil Science in all its facets and givessupport to regional and national societies.

The 5th ASSS conference organized in Yaoundé in November 2009 was attended by over than 120 participants from 26 countries

Rome, 07/09/2011Keynote Speech, Martin Yemefack2


Rome

What is it about?

Several international, regional and nationalsoil related policies have influenced soilscience at worldwide scale, but these have hadlimited impact in Africa where consequentlysoil scientists still have so much to do.



Rome

Soil related policies

Most countries have signed up to the three Rio conventions and many other international policies such as:

•Millennium Development Goals

•World Summit for sustainable development (WSSD)

•World Food Summits (WFS 1996, 2001)

•International Conventions (UNCCD, UNFCC, UNBD…)

•UN reports on African agriculture



Rome

Soil related policies

Regional soil related policies in Africa are:

•The African Union's/NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme, in particular pillar no 1 “sustainable land and water management”;

•The Nairobi Declaration on the African Process for Combating Climate Change

•Abuja Declaration on the Green Revolution for Africa (2006)

•Resolution of the Abuja Food Security Summit (December 2006)

•Etc.



Rome

N.B.: National and local soil related policies are rare

Critical lessons from Limited Impact of policies

a. A recognised need for better understanding of theprocesses which enable soil as a complex, spatiallyheterogeneous living resource to function and tosupport life on earth.

b. A highly context-specific approach and policy arerequired which should take into account the fertilitystatus of the soil, the availability of organic inputs andthe ability to access and pay for mineral fertilizers.



Rome

Future of Soil Science in Africa: Opportunities

In Africa, there are still much to be done for a complete reorientationand re-prioritisation for a demand driven and client-orientedresearch and education. Some challenges are:

1. Development of land use policies • Elaboration of comprehensive Land use planning maps & modelling at relevant scales

• Determination of relevant parameters for sub-regional, National and decentralized land use policies formulation

2. Reversing land degradation and replenishment of soil fertility• Assessment of state and trend of land degradation (LADA approach?)

• Determination of technologies options for integrated soil fertility management

• Adaptation of conservation agriculture practices to the diverse agro-ecological zones

• Database development and modelling



Rome


3. Disasters prevention and management

• Disaster risks mapping in land use planning at various scales

• Identification, assessment and monitoring of remedial interventions

4. Food security and Food safety for markets• Contribution of Africa Agriculture to ensure food security

• Determination of standards and appropriate rates and formula for fertiliser use in staple crops production

5. Biodiversity and Biotechnology• Development of optimum packages for biological nitrogen fixation technologies

• Evaluation, assessment and monitoring of the impacts of GMO utilization on soil biodiversity



Rome


6. Climate Change •Evaluation of potential for carbon sequestration in various AEZ and options for carbon storage in small farmers community lands

•Evaluation of environmental benefits and environmental services costs

•Development of land management options to mitigate adapt to Climate change

7. Urban and peri-urban agriculture • Development of urban and peri-urban optimum land use planning options

• Evaluation of urbanization impacts on land use changes and soil quality

• Land pollutions risks prevention and reduction

8. Promotion of new technologies such as Conservation Agriculture

9. Etc.



Rome

Future of Soil Science in Africa: Perspectives

(i) Contribution to the implementation of the FAO Global Soil Partnership Programme

(ii) Contribution to the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program of NEPAD (CAADP/NEPAD

(iii) Favourable environments with the adoption of the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizers use and the Resolution on Food security

(iv) Many administrations in Africa enacted laws for decentralization to give power to local communities to decide on how to use and manage their land. The implementation is, however, not yet effective in many cases and it is not clear how decentralization will

affect sustainable land management

(v) Etc.



Rome

What is to be done?From numerous discussions on the future of soil Science, the followings have to be done:

1. Soil science cannot work in isolation. It needs to be part of multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary teams, and should reach out to other disciplines.

2. Soil science has been poor in communicating its successes, and several authors believe that interaction with policy makers at all levels (including local level) and the general public needs to increase.

3. Soil science in Africa should contribute to major global issues like for example food production, climate change studies, or environmental impact.



Rome

The ASSS Actions

Responding to what is to be done, the 5th ASSS Conference discussed current and future challenges on:

• Soils, food crisis and food security;

• soil degradation and sustainable land management in Africa;

• soils and mitigation/adaptation to climate change;

• Up-scaling Conservation Agriculture in Africa;

• soil and database development in Africa

• and land renewable energies.

Up-to-date information on these topics was shared among participants.



Rome

The ASSS within the framework of the proposed GSP: Current actions similar to the GSP agenda

In the final communiqué of the 5th conference,

1. ASSS recognised the expertise and commitment of its members, and

declared ready to support widespread dissemination and use of knowledge dealing with sustainable land management; and to implement urgent actions to meet the current and future challenges in Africa.

2. For this purpose, African soil scientists called for a political support and for a significant increase of investments to result in a increased productivity and preservation of soil resources in national policies and development plans.

3. ASSS also expressed their commitment to strengthen their national and sub-regional soil science societies in order to actively contribute to the ASSS business.



Rome

The ASSS within the framework of the proposed GSP: Current actions similar to the GSP agenda

4. ASSS members and other relevant national institutions were also engaged into generating, improving and disseminating quality soil data for supporting actions and policies particularly with regard to land transactions with foreign multinational enterprises

5. The ASSS is also actively involved in the initiative of the Soil Atlas of Africa, which is an outcome of a multi-stakeholder partnership (FAO, ISRIC, IUSS, etc.) coordinated by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and ASSS.



Rome

The ASSS within the framework of the proposed GSP

ASSS can use its regional network to promote the sharing and use of this knowledge, through:

1. The organization of local, national, regional and international meetings among actors of knowledge and those involved in land use including producers, public managers, policy makers, scientists, businesses, public services, international organizations, associations, etc. (The participation of most Africa scientists to the 5th ASSS Conference was supported thanks to the sponsorship of FAO and the JRC).

2. Consolidating and networking of soil databases, updated regularly.

3. Construction and animation of international networks for the management and sustainable use of soils; with periodical publications on soil conditions, the status of activities related to sustainable soil management. (Example of The Soils Atlas of Africa)



Rome

The ASSS within the framework of the proposed GSP

Finally, ASSS highly support this Global soil partnership initiative, and are ready to work within this framework, for enlightening the relationship between soil and society, to help create the conditions for Africa soils, in their diversity, to fulfil their various functions and play a full role in food and environment which are indeed, factors of peace and stability.



Rome



Rome

regional soil policies and future of soil science

Documents