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Paper 5Soil: The silent frontier

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ContentsExecutive summary 1

Introduction 2Africa and the last global soil assessment 4

Why soil matters 5Pathways forwards 6

Conclusion 10List of references 11

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Executive summaryThis paper argues that there is no possibility of overcoming African food insecurity or transforming Africa into a vibrant agricultural powerhouse if current trends in soil degradation are not arrested and actively reversed. This issue is not just of relevance to agricultural companies; through its direct connection to food prices and rural employment opportunities, soil degradation will drive in ation and unemployment across the continent.

The last global soil assessment in 1 classi ed of Africa’s arable land as degraded, meaning that it had become less productive; categorisations ranged from “lightly degraded” to “human-induced wasteland”. The assessment suggests that while most of the world focuses on population growth as the critical challenge in meeting the food demands of a growing world population, the silent crisis on the African continent is not that Africa’s population will double, but rather that the productive capacity of more than half of the soils supporting this population is below what it could be – and that it is continuing to deteriorate.

The fact that such a large proportion of Africa’s arable land is degraded will increasingly undermine economic and social development as Africa’s population grows, while placing increasing pressure on collapsing ecosystems.

While soil is yet another in a very long list of critical developmental challenges facing the continent, it differs from others (such as climate change) in that addressing soil degradation has a clearer set of tangible and immediate bene ts. Soil restoration also has a wide range of bene cial feedback loops which assist in resolving other challenges such as water scarcity, energy ef ciency and climate adaptation. Encouragingly, pockets of remarkable innovation and achievement already exist, even though agro-ecological farming is still very much at the vanguard of agricultural research and development. Given the current technologies and resources available, focussing on soil restoration has a very valuable contribution to make in ensuring a vibrant agricultural economy and a future characterized by food security.

5 key messages:

120 million hectares of pristine natural land (much of it from indigenous forests) will have to be tilled in order to feed the world for the next 20 years. This is roughly equal to the amount of land degraded by agriculture over the last 20 years

of arable soils in Africa is degraded, radically reducing Africa’s agricultural productivity and pro tability

Soil degradation could pose a bigger threat to food security in Africa than population growth

Restoring degraded soils is the only viable long-term solution to meeting the forecast gap between current food supply and the growing African population

Agro-ecological approaches present a viable alternative for small- and large-scale farms of the future

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Introduction“Soil degradation may well be the root cause of many of Africa’s biggest problems and yet it is hardly ever mentioned in any

of the accounts about Africa’s socio-economic and political challenges.” (Swilling & Annecke, 2012: 159)

igure 1: Arable land per person in Sub-Saharan Africa 1 0 – 2011. orecast 2012 – 20 0 (Adapted from World ank 2012) Last global soil assessment 1990 (FAO 1990)

The fact that so much of Africa’s arable land is degraded will increasingly undermine economic and social development as Africa’s growing population places increasing pressure on already fragile ecosystems.

1 In 19 the FAO and EP convened a high level panel of international experts at Wageningen niversity to develop a classi cation system for human induced soil degradation which could be rolled out at a global scale (Oldeman et al. 1991)

nited ations estimates suggest that in order to meet food demands in 2030, 120 million hectares (Mha) of additional farmland will need to be opened up, much of which will come from existing indigenous forest. While this is a shockingly large gure, the tragic irony is that since 1990 120Mha of agricultural land has undergone some form of degradation (Scherr, 1999 in Swilling & Annecke, 2012). In other words we have destroyed as much soil in the last 20 years as we now supposedly need to take from previously untouched natural areas over the next 20. Due to its relative abundance of agricultural land, high incidence of soil degradation and burgeoning population, Africa sits at the epicentre of this unfolding global catastrophe. Currently the African population is estimated at 1.1billion and it is forecast to more than double to approximately 2.4 billion by 20 0. y 2100, the nited ations predicts that

igeria alone will be home to almost as many people as China ( ESA 2014). In conjunction with this demographic growth, Africa’s future, like the rest of the world, is set to be an urban one. For African business and political leaders the consequence is stark: within the next 3 years, African food systems will (in one way or another) be feeding many more African urbanites and slum dwellers than there are currently people alive in all of Africa today.

Furthermore, we know that as consumers urbanise and they enter the ranks of the global middle class, they shift to more resource-intensive diets – more meat, more dairy, more poultry products, more sugars, more fats (see Paper II Making Sense of undernutrition and overconsumption). This will further intensify the demand on already drastically reduced soil resources: by 20 0, satisfying Africa’s increasing middle class will require more land per capita despite the fact that there will be half as much land available to agriculture.While this is a challenge in itself, the bigger underlying issue is not the total quantity of land available in terms of hectares per capita, as is often assumed, but rather the underlying quality of this land. The last global soil assessment in 1990 classi ed of Africa’s arable land as degraded, meaning that it had become less productive. Classi cation ranged from “lightly degraded” to “human-induced wasteland”. This assessment suggests that while most of the world focuses on population growth as the critical challenge in meeting the food demands of a growing world population, the silent crisis on the African continent is not that Africa’s population will double, but rather that the productive capacity of the ecological capital (soils) supporting this population is at less than half what it could be – and that it is continuing to deteriorate.

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Perspectives from the frontline

Cobus ester is the owner and manager of a 2 000 hectare family farm in the Swartland region of the Western Cape. Like a growing number of South African farmers, he has spent the better part of the last 20 years shifting his business from an input-intensive wheat monoculture to a low external input system. “Feed the soil, not the plant” he quips, in order to highlight the focus of his attention: building his soils through shifting to minimum tillage² and wheat/legume rotations while also reducing harmful fertiliser applications and building the organic carbon levels buried beneath his elds. When questioned about his opinion of organic farming, he shrugs and explains pragmatically:

“Organics is the next step after farmers have mastered

biological³ farming, but this progression will happen

naturally. Biological farming is a necessary bridge which

first has to be built. But because of the vested interest into

research by private companies selling inputs they cannot be

counted on [to drive the transition]. It will have to be farmers

or governments who take the lead”.

For him and the small group of progressive farmers in the region, this learning on the job has been a slow and patient process of balancing risk with innovation which began in the mid 1990s.

In the past, when following his former principle of monoculture, ester achieved a maximum yield of around 3 tonnes per hectare and was able to stock roughly 1 sheep per

hectares across his farm. ow, when following rotational, agro-ecological farming methods, he gets a higher wheat yield of 4 tonnes per hectare, but only half of the 2 000 hectares are planted with wheat. The other half is planted with nitrogen- xing legume crops which naturally fertilise the soil and provide excellent grazing for livestock.

This system provides ester with an annual wheat yield of 4 000 tonnes off 1 000 hectares in the good years – only 33 percent lower than the yield off 2 000 hectares under monoculture scenario. He still stocks sheep, but at a higher rate of 1 ewe per 1. hectares - triple that of his monoculture system. The grazing he gets from the legume crop has also allowed him to add 0 cattle in his rotational system which brings in additional income. The manure from these sheep and cattle also end up back in the soils helping to keep them healthy.

Monoculture Rotation/ Agro-ecology Difference

Wheat (tonnes) 0 0 4000 - 20 0 (Grain)

Sheep (ewes) 440 12 0 + 810 (wool and meat)

Cattle (head) 0 0 + 0 (hides and meat)

In summary: while, esters’ total wheat yield are only a third lower in his rotational system, despite only half the amount of land being planted, his other outputs such as meat and wool are at least 200 percent higher. This diversi cation signi cantly reduces the nancial risk pro le of his business (Metelerkamp 2011). He also considers his wheat harvest to be considerably more resilient to drought, because his soils now also absorb and retain the winter rainfall far better than before.

He is not alone in arguing for the bene ts of this system. According to South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council, minimum tillage, rotational systems such as these can consistently produce wheat at a price per tonne which is 1 -20 lower than conventional high-input systems can in local conditions (Grain South Africa, 2010).From a food security perspective this is signi cant, as it clearly shows that soil restoration under agro-ecological farming practices has the potential to deliver more diverse food baskets at lower prices (Metelerkamp 2011).

2 Instead of using traditional ploughing techniques which disturbs soil structure and biology by inverting it, minimum tillage keeps soil disturbance to the absolute minimum required to plant and bury the seed.

3 ester’s phase “biological farming” correlates to the concept we have used, “agro-ecological farming” – see Restoring soils and society: Pathways for the agricultural sector, page 10, for detailed explanation.

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Africa and the last global soil assessmentDespite the critical role soil plays, and the daunting demands which will be placed on Africa’s farmlands over the course of the century as the population explodes, astoundingly little attention is paid to the condition of the primary underlying asset base on which the future of the continent’s food systems is predicated: its soil.

The last global assessment of agricultural soils completed in 1990 by the International Soil Reference And Information Centre on behalf of the nited ations, almost 2 years ago, and even then the picture was dire (Oldeman et al. 1991; Swilling & Annecke 2012). Of the 1 3 million hectares of productive land in Africa (agriculture, pasture and woodland), 19 was rated as “Seriously degraded” .

Figure 2: Degradation by land use type in Africa in 1990 (FAO 1990 in Scherr, 1999)

Land

are

a in

mill

ions

of h

ecta

res

Agricultural land

RemainderSeriously degradedDegraded

Lightly degraded ot degraded

Permanent pasture Forest & woodland

Figure 3: Total degraded productive land in Africa: 1990 (FAO 1990 in Scherr, 1999)

4 The study used a dynamic rating system in which the severity of soil degradation for a given area is a factor of the degree of degradation and the percentage of mapping area affected. For more information see (Oldeman et al. 1991: 1 )

More concerning however, is that of the 18 million hectares of agricultural land was classi ed as degraded to varying degrees, at best characterised by ”reduced productivity” and at worst by ”human-induced wasteland” (Scherr, 1999 in Swilling & Annecke, 2012: 1 4). The staggeringly high degradation of the agricultural component is concerning because it is these once-fertile and comparatively productive soils that are the growth engine of the African food system. What is also troubling is that the data presented in Figures 2 and 3 are now more than 20 years old. If this was the situation then, what is the real story on the ground at present?

Sara Scherr and colleagues from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) have estimated that, in the years since 1990, Mha per annum has become degradedothers have suggested as much as double this. Scherr et al’s

estimate would mean that , globally, some 120Mha of land has undergone some form of degradation since 1990 (Scherr, 1999 in Swilling & Annecke, 2012). This is as much land as the nited ations estimates will need to be opened up to agriculture by 2030, in order to meet the food needs of rising global populations.

In other words, having destroyed 120Mha of arable land in the past 20 years through poor agricultural practices, we now intend to subject the same amount of previously untouched natural land to the same process of degradation over the coming 20 a gross waste of irreplaceable natural capital (Swilling & Annecke 2012). Despite these statistics, soil still receives surprisingly little attention in both popular and academic literature relating to global sustainability challenges. One notable exception to this is in agriculture-speci c voluntary reporting initiatives (see Figure ).

121 130

0

243

3

0

11

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Why soil matters

So why does this matter? In a very telling analysis of the increasing input inef ciency towards which synthetically fertilized agriculture is heading, Swilling and Annecke pose a simple question: “How many kilograms of food can you grow with a kilogram of fertilizer?” (Swilling & Annecke, 2012: 1 ). The answer, they nd, is that in 19 1, the global average was about 1 1kg of food for every 1kg of itrogen Potassium and Phosphate ( P ). However, by 2000, despite almost four decades of

supposed technological advancement, this had dropped to around 93kg of output for every 1kg of P input . In many African countries, where fertilizer mismanagement and soil degradation has been most severe, these declines have been far, far greater (Tan et al in Swilling & Annecke, 2012). What this means in practice is that progressively more fertiliser is required to support and sustain a certain level of yield. It is anticipated that this trend will continue unless soil degradation is kept in check. (see Figure 4).

In the words of Junior Heroldt, another third-generation South African grain farmer:

At the introduction of fertilisers and that high-input approach

to farming that came with it, the results were spectacular,

even small increases in synthetic nutrient application

significantly increased our production. However, over time

this ceased to be the case and we found that we were

requiring increasing amounts of fertilisers just to maintain

our production levels. The reason we later found was that

when we began applying fertilisers we were applying them to

relatively healthy soils, but that over time this natural capital

had been eroded. It was clear to us that continuing on the

path we were on was financial suicide. That’s when our slow

process of rebuilding the organic components of our soils

began. (Heroldt 2010)

Signi cantly for Africa, this is an issue faced by large- and small-scale farmers alike, and this farmer’s words bear a striking resemblance to those of small-scale farmers in places like India, who embraced the use of agro-chemical inputs being pushed by companies such as Du Pont, ASF and Monsanto during much the same period of time ( elly 2009; ate 2010)

The fact that soil degradation requires higher inputs of fertiliser to maintain crop yields has signi cant nancial implications for African farmers and food systems. However, soil degradation is not just about reduced ef ciency: critically, it is directly linked to reduced total output per hectare (IAASTD 2009, Lal 200 ; Scherr 1999), the instability of food production in the face of climate shocks (Gbetibouo & Ringler 2009; IAASTD 2009, Lal 2010), and rising production costs (Scherr 1999; Liu et al. 2010; Metelerkamp 2011; Swilling & Annecke 2012).

Figure 4: Rising nitrogen fertilizer intensity in world food production (FAO Stat 2012).

This suggests that as these global agro-chemical giants turn their attention to growing agro-chemical demand in Africa, extreme caution is required to ensure that large and small farmers alike are not led down the same chemically intensive path, when in fact a real opportunity exists to leap-frog African agriculture into the agro-ecological era.

“Similar to the close link between energy use and atmospheric chemistry, there also exists a close link between food insecurity

and climate change through degradation of soils” (Lal 2010)

19 1

otrogenilotonnes

{Population(in thousands)

198

itrogen Population

2009

100,000

80,000

0,000

40,000

20,000

,000,000

,000,000

3,000,000

1,000,000

The good news is that while soil degradation continues to increase, so too do the list of successful initiatives to combat it. Sustainable intensi cation and agro-ecological farming methods, which pair modern innovation and science with more traditional approaches to agriculture, have a clear and proven track record of restoring soils and boosting both productivity and resource ef ciency in agriculture (Pretty 200 ). In addition, the technologies they employ also spark off a number of other cycles and long-range feedback loops for climate change, biodiversity and human health (Pretty 200 , Magdoff 200 , Holt-Gimenez & Patel 2009).

Restoring soils & society: Pathways for the agricultural sectorWhile agroecology goes by many names, such as biological farming, LEISA (Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture), natuur boerdery and many others, its underlying principle is that agriculture is more ef cient and productive when the ecological systems on and around the farm are healthy. Agroecology and other similar sustainable intensi cation models work with ecological systems to make the most of the innovations which modern science has to offer (Pretty 200 ).

Globally, agroecology is gaining traction because it provides farmers with a framework through which to understand and respond to the failures of conventional intensive farming, which requires high inputs of chemical fertilisers, without the risks associated with going completely organic. This

highlights the fact that, in the 21st Century, agroecology and even organic agriculture in the 21st century are not about regressing to the farming methods of a bygone era when man worked in harmony with nature, since technically such a system has never really existed. o, the challenge today is about developing new techniques based on past knowledge and experience, and then developing skills and capacities to put those techniques into practice. The ultimate aim is to revolutionise the way in which food is produced by creating a system that uses resources ef ciently and helps restore the local ecology all within the very challenging context of the African continent. Put another way, the leading food economies of the future are going to be those which successfully make the transition from resource intensity to ecological ef ciency.

From large producers such as ZZ2 in South Africa, to the millions of mixed-crop farmers in India, the people who know the land best are realising that the current agricultural model that relies on a high amount of external inputs has made them slaves to a broken system. These seasoned commercial farmers are looking for ways to take back control of their farms and futures by working more closely with nature and working less with large chemical companies (Metelerkamp 2011). In doing so they are not only reducing the negative downstream impacts of high-input agriculture on the food system, but they are also achieving greater nancial resilience and making more money than farmers who are not (Metelerkamp 2011).

The road ahead

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE’S LARGEST TOMATO PRODUCER AND ITS PASSION FOR SOIL QUALITY

ZZ2 is a farming conglomerate operating in the Limpopo, Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. ZZ2 is the largest tomato producer in the Southern Hemisphere and also produces onions, avocados, apples, pears, stone fruit and beef. In addition to being a world leader in tomato production, the company is recognized for its large-scale shift towards agroecological farming practices. Since 2002 the ZZ2 farming enterprise has implemented a programme for the gradual conversion of all its farming activities from a conventional approach using chemical fertilisers to one that is ecologically more balanced. The latter approach aims to harness the laws and energies of natural ecosystems without sacri cing the bene ts of science. “It includes replacing fertilisers with compost and using fermented plant extracts to keep insects away from produce without killing them,” says ZZ2 marketing manager, Clive Garret.

ZZ2’s large-scale composting facility which supplies its farms with high-quality compost

The rejuvenation of the entire ecosystem surrounding the farm, and in particular the creation of healthy soil, is fundamental to the practice of agroecology (see Figure ). The fuel of soil life is carbon, more speci cally organic carbon in the form of dead plants and other living matter. ecause

agroecology promotes the burying of this organic carbon instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, it not only helps rebuild and enhance soil fertility, it also reduces agriculture’s carbon footprint (Pretty 200 ).

Soil degradation has major, compounding effects on the global food value chain. Agroecology’s proven ability to restore degraded soils while reducing chemical dependency thus makes it a keystone intervention in improving the global food system.

Soil restoration is however not just a rural challenge which farmers grapple with alone. Reducing synthetic fertiliser inputs and increasing soil carbon cannot be successful on a large scale unless the carbon and nutrient streams being drawn into Africa’s cities through rural foodsheds are returned to the soils from which they came ((Ellen Macarthur Foundation 2013). In the same way a watermill can only produce energy if the water cycle returns water to the rivers upstream of the mill, agriculture can only become truly renewable when the nutrient cycles that drive it are reconnected to form increasingly closed loop nutrient cycles (Ellen Macarthur Foundation 2013).

In the context of an urban African future, this means reprocessing urban sewerage, kitchen waste and any other waste that originated from the soil, into forms that can be returned to it, instead of polluting rivers, oceans and land ll sites. This nutrient recycling is not only a major challenge: It is also an almost entirely untapped commercial opportunity to reinvent industries like fertilisers, animal feed and waste management (Mollart 2014, Le Grange & Metelerkamp, forthcoming). Encouragingly, soil issues have gained good traction over the last decade from the perspective of sustainability reporting. Across 1 of the world’s biggest voluntary sustainability-reporting initiatives focusing on agricultural supply chain initiatives, soil ranked as the most stringent compliance category. On average, 8 of the 1 reporting initiatives required full compliance on their listed soil criteria at rst audit (that is, before awarding any certi cation), indicating a 2 weighting of importance towards soil over the average of the other see evaluation categories (see Figure ) (Potts et al. 2014).

Figure : The best of both worlds: Linking agroecological soil management practices to better food-system and sustainability outcomes

Inputsitrogen

xing legume

rotations

Minimum tillage

Ph, & micronutrient

balancing

Improved soil

monitoring & analysis

Precision planting

& irrigation

Improved livestock

integration

Integrated pest

management

Cover crops &

mulching with crop residues

Manures, composts &

non-synthetic fertilisers

Outputs

Improved climate

resilience

Improved water

ef ciency

Improved input ef ciency

etter farm health/ less crop disease

Drastically reduced nancial

risk pro le

Sustainable yield growth

and diversi ed production

uilding soils

Outcomes

Greater resilience &

pro tability in agri-sector

Greater stability in

food supply & pricing

Climate change mitigation

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Increasingly state regulation and pressure from sustainability certi cation programmes suggest that soil will be an important strategic opportunity for any enterprise operating

in the food system to develop a sound brand reputation for sustainable practices.

Figure : The importance of soil relative to other assessment criteria in the agricultural value chain - as seen by the world’s leading sustainable supply chain certi cation initiatives (Potts et al. 2014)

Average coverage of SSI environmental indices among all 16 voluntary sustainability initiatives.Environmental criteria coverage only re ects speci c matches with the SSI indicators and should not be understood to suggest a given initiative’s entire treatment on a speci c sustainability topic

IFOAM

SA /RA

ProTerra

RS

PEFC

ETP

GLO AL G.A.P

FAIRTRADE

FSC

RTRS

YTZ

RSPO

4C Association

onsucro

CmiA

CI Soil Waste Syntheticinputs

Water iodiversity GMOprohibition

Greenhousegas

Energy Totalaverage

8

1 0

20

40 39

9

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ConclusionThe fact that over of Africa’s agricultural soils is degraded will increasingly undermine economic and social development as Africa’s population grows. In short, there is no possibility of overcoming the lack of food security for Africa, or of transforming the continent into a vibrant agricultural powerhouse, if current trends in soil degradation are not addressed and actively reversed. This is not just an issue which is of relevance to agricultural companies; through its direct connection to food prices, soil depredation increases the cost of doing business for all organisations with large, low-income workforces.

While soil is yet another in a very long list of critical developmental challenges facing the continent, it differs from others (such as climate change) in that addressing soil degradation has a clearer set of tangible and immediate bene ts. Soil restoration also has a wide range of bene cial feedback loops which speak to many other critical challenges such as water scarcity, energy ef ciency and adaptation to climate change.

Encouragingly, pockets of remarkable innovation and achievement already exist, even though agroecological farming is still very much at the vanguard of agricultural research and development.

Given the current technologies and resources available, focussing on soil restoration has a very valuable contribution to make in ensuring a vibrant agricultural economy and thus food security for all Africans into the future. In order to achieve these goals, the long term vision for agricultural development in Africa needs to shift from opening up new farmland and increasing the use of agro-chemicals, to restoring degraded lands and maximising input ef ciency in order to reduce the nancial and ecological costs of production.

Finally, in the context of Africa’s urban future, it is important to stress that soil management can no longer remain a purely rural issue. Achieving sustainable soil management practices in the 21st Century will be completely dependent on ensuring nutrient recycling and circular nutrient ows between urban and rural environments. At the same time, the viability of tomorrow’s urban conglomerations will depend on the ability of the agricultural sector to produce enough food at the right price and healthy soil is the basic capital it must use to do so.

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List of referencesester, C. 2010. Personal interview. 12 May. Mooreesburg, South Africa

Department of Environmental Affairs, 2012. ational Waste Information aseline, Pretoria.

Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2013. Towards the circular economy, Online.

Environmental Protection Agency, 2012. utrient Management and Fertilizer. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/tfer.html Accessed ovember 12, 2013 .

Gbetibouo, G.A., Ringler, C. 2009. Mapping South African Farming Sector Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability. International Food Policy Research Institute, Discussion Paper 0088 . Pretoria: International Food Policy Research Institute

Grain South Africa (Grain SA). 200 . Wheat Production Costs 1999-200 . Online . Grain South Africa. Downloaded from: http://www.grainsa.co.za/documents/ oring 20produksiekoste 1.xls (20 June 2010)

Heroldt, J. Personal interview. 0 May, Philadelphia, South Africa

Holt-Gimenez, E., Patel, R. 2009. Food Rebellions. Cape Town: CT Press

International assessment of agricultural knowledge, science and technology for development (IAASTD). 2009. Agriculture at a Crossroads: Global Report. Washington, DC: Island Press

ate, T., 2010. From Industrial Agriculture to Agro Ecological Farming – A South African Perspective. ECSECC Working Paper Series, 10, pp.0–21.

elly, C., 2009. Lower external input farming methods as a more sustainable solution for small-scale farmers. Stellenbosch niversity.

Lal, R., 2010. Managing soils for a warming earth in a food-insecure and energy-starved world. Journal of Plant utrition and Soil Science, 1 3(1), pp.4–1 . Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/jpln.200900290 Accessed March 19, 2014 .

Lal, R., 200 . Managing soils for feeding a global population of 10 billion. Agric, J Sci Food, 2284, pp.22 3–2284.

Liu, J. et al., 2010. A high-resolution assessment on global nitrogen ows in cropland. , pp.1– .

Magdoff, F. 200 b. Ecological agriculture: Principles, practices, and constraints. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, Vol 22 (2): 109–11

Metelerkamp, L., 2011. Commercial Agriculture In The Swartland : Investigating Emerging Trends Towards More Sustainable Food Production. Stellenbosch niversity.

Mollart, C.M., 2014. Ecological Food Sense : Connections between food waste ows and food production in Enkanini Informal Settlement , Stellenbosch by. Stellenbosch niversity.

Oldeman, L.., Hakkeling, R.T.. & Sombroek, W.., 1991. World Map Of The Status Of Human-Induced Soil Degradation An Explanatory ote, Wageningen: International Soil Reference & Information Centre.

Potts, J. et al., 2014. The State of Sustainability Initiatives Review 2014 Green Economy, Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Pretty, J. 200 . Regenerating Agriculture. London: Earthscan. 84.

Scherr, S.J., 1999. Soil Degradation A Threat to Developing-Country Food Security by 2020 ?, Washington DC: IFPRI.

Swilling, M. & Annecke, E., 2012. Just Transitions, Cape Town: CT Press.

The Economist, 2011. When others are grabbing their land. The Economist. Available at: http://www.economist.com/node/18 488 .

ESA, 2014. World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision. Available at: http://esa.un.org/wpp/unpp/panel population.htm Accessed April 1 , 2014 .

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