Soil. It’s like the air we breathe – we can’t live without it. It provides our food, cleans our water, supports our ecosystems and livelihoods, and even gives us lifesaving medicines.
But we aren’t doing enough to protect it and our landscapes are in trouble.
This is why the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) blog is focusing on restoring degraded landscapes for the next month. As the research and development world meets to discuss the most pressing issues relating to soil and landscape protection at Global Soil Week and the Global Landscapes Forum, we will be bringing the discussion to WLE’s Agriculture and Ecosystems blog.
What exactly is the problem?
Conservative estimates state that the world is losing 24 billion tons of fertile soil each year. That’s 3.4 tons lost every year for every person on the planet. In Africa alone, land degradation affects 67% of agricultural lands, with about 490 million hectares showing erosion and declining vegetation. Left unchecked, this will have huge impact on food security and human and environmental health.
Read the full story by Deborah Bossio on the Agriculture and Ecosystems blog.
Photo: N. Palmer (CIAT)
