Unlocking the Potential of Soil Organic Carbon

Yuxin Tong,Global Soil Partnership Secretariat

Land and Water Division,FAO

Agriculture is the Solution! For climate change, Japan

Food security

• Increase the world's population will require enough food and healthy soils to provide it

• Sustainable management of SOC is critical to enhancing and managing soil health

Soil Organic Carbon: the hidden potential

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Farmers are the central vehicle of transformation.

Farmers are aware of SOC Farmers do not work towards sequestering carbon Farmers' prime objective is increasing soil

productivity and maintaining it in time Thus, we need to work with farmers by supporting

technically and providing incentives

For example:

The Quesungual system involves an integration of cropping and preservation of trees, shrubs and grasses (agroforestry in Honduras)

Good practices adopted by farmers can: Yields almost doubled soil organic matter content increased from 2% to

3.3% over 20 years

The Global Soil Partnership promotes Sustainable Soil

Managementto improve soil governance at all levels

to support/enhance the provision ofessential ecosystem services

2012

Sustainable Soil Management

“Soil management is sustainable if the

supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural services provided by soil

are maintained or enhanced without

significantly impairing the soil functions that enable

those services of biodiversity.”

201720152015

Black Sunday refers to a particularly severe dust storm that occurred onApril 14, 1935. It was one of the worst dust storms in American history andit caused immense economic and agricultural damage. It is estimated to havedisplaced 300 million tons of topsoil from the prairie area in the US.

• "The Black Sunday Dust Storm of 14 April 1935". National Weather Service: Norman, Oklahoma Weather Forecast Office. Retrieved 23 May 2012.

• Black Blizzard, History Channel documentary.8

1935, US 2019, Northeast China

Climate change

Uruguay

Heilongjiang, China

Illinois, USAGollany et al (2011) Agronomy Journal 103, 234-246

Ren et al, 2018

Long-term rotations experiment by the Century model

Carbon loss (135 Pg C) from soils accounts for 5–15% of global CO2 emissions over the past 100 years.

Land degradation costs $4-20 trillion each year in lost ecosystem services.

Rattan Lal, Global Change Biology, 2018Jess Davies, Nature, 2017Pg C = 1015 g C

Soil Organic Carbon: the hidden potential

• A potentially large and uncertain source of CO2emissions in response to predicted global temperature rises.

• A natural sink for carbon able to reduce atmospheric CO2.

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Multiple benefit provided by Sustainable Soil Management based on SOC

Mulching Cover cropping

Integrated Nutrient Management

Rhizobium

Complex farming systems

No-till

Sustainable soil managementcan increase SOC stocks on agricultural lands

Lal, 2017

Soils and Sustainable Development Goals

Milestone event:First time that a scientificsymposium of this nature isco-organized by differentorganizations and bodies ofthe United Nations togather scientific evidencefor policy development onthe role of SOC for climatechange, food security andSDGs agendas.

Global Symposium on Soil Organic Carbon

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Recommendations: Theme 1: Measuring, mapping,

monitoring and reporting soil organic carbon stocks and stock changes.

Theme 2: Maintaining and/or increasing SOC stocks (Forstering SOC sequestration)

Theme 3: Managing SOC in soils with high SOC. (Peatland, Permafrost and Black soils)

Outcome Document

Output 1 Measuring, mapping, monitoring and reporting

110 countries | ~260 Participants| ~ 60% of the World

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Output 1 Measuring, mapping, monitoring and reporting

GSOCmap Toolbox TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS SOC MAPPING HANDBOOK DATA REPOSITORY (SDF) REMOTE SUPPORT GSP SOIL DATA POLICY

Capacity Development

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International Network of Soil Information Institutions (INSII)

Output 1 Measuring, mapping, monitoring and reporting

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Maintaining and/or increasing SOC stocks Output 2

The technical manual on SOC management at the regional and sub-regional scale

Grassland, shrublands, and bare and sparse areas with low, moderate, and high livestock Rainfed agriculture – subsistence,

familiar and commercial; Rainfed or irrigated agriculture

with livestock;

Farmers to farmers training on avolunteering basis.

To build the capacity of small-holder farmers on the practice ofSOC management;

To support governmental agencies and organizations working on agricultural extension at the field level;

To support field research based on interactions between universities and research institutes with the Soil Doctors including access to demonstration and experimental fields;

To promote technical and scientific cooperation among countries for improving their soil testing procedures.

Output 2 Maintaining and/or increasing SOC stocks

The International Symposium on Black Soils &First Plenary of International Network of BlackSoils (ISBS18) have been held in Harbin on 10 - 12September 2018.

Outputs:

1. The definition of black soils

2. Working plan of INBS

3. Harbin Communique

Second Plenary of INBS will hold in Moldova in October 2019

Output 3 Managing SOC in soils with high SOC

International Network of Black Soils

Way Forward and the KoroniviaJoint Work on Agriculture

Raising awareness

Measuring, mapping, monitoring and reporting Global SOC stocksGlobal assessment of SOC sequestrationGlobal SOC monitoring system

Maintaining and/or increasing SOC stocks Good practices for SOC management Management of fertilizationSOC incentives pool

Managing SOC in soils with high SOCInternational Network of Black soils

Topics 2(c) Improved soil carbon, soil health and soil fertility under grassland and cropland as well as integrated systems, including water management

Thanks for your attention

Move into concrete actions with tools of sustainable SOC management