Global Soil Partnership Plenary Assembly – Sixth Session 11 – 13 June 2018 FAO HQ

1. Status of the African Soil Partnership
2017 - 2018
Prof Victor O. Chude,
AfsP Chair

2. African Soil Partnership (AfSP)
• Formed in 2013 as part of the FAO GSP in
recognition of the central role of soil
resources as a basis for
ofood security
okey ecosystem services
oclimate change adaptation and
mitigation

3. The Case
• Africa has embarked on research and development to
improve soil productivity and has its own version of the Green
Revolution.
• Still, growth in productivity has been rather sluggish (less than
3 – 5% annual growth), mainly due to low soil productivity.
• Africa is yet to achieve food security and thus be able to feed
its 1.2 billion people.
• Main soil degradation
o nutrient depletion
o water erosion
o biodiversity loss
o soil organic matter/carbon decline
o acidification
o salinization
o compaction
o pollution

4. Priorities of SSM in African countries
• Rehabilitation of degraded soils
• Soil conservation
• Climate smart agriculture / conservation agriculture
• Agroforestry
• Improved soil fertility management
• Improved production practices
• Proper land use planning / linked to soil information
• Capacity development and awareness
• Soil laboratories
• More

5. FAO GSP/AfSP Proposed Strategies to
Address the Challenges to SSM in
SSA: Implementation Plan

6. Pillar 1: Promote sustainable management of soil resources and improved
global governance for soil protection and sustainable productivity
• Identify soil degradation and restoration hotspots.
• Map soil potential for agriculture for major agro-
ecological zones.
• Especially, implement SSM projects
Pillar 2: Encourage investment, technical cooperation, policy, education,
awareness and extension in soil
• Building soil science capacity through a tertiary soil science
training exchange programme.
• The importance of soil extension services is highlighted, as well
as the need for region-specific policy recommendations to
support SSM development and implementation.

7. Pillar 3: Promote targeted soil research and development focusing on
identified gaps, priorities, and synergies with related productive,
environmental, and social development actions:
• Focus on soil research for development, identify main
research gaps.
• Establishment of an African Soil Research for Development
Platform
o Bring soil research for development partners together
o Address identified research gaps
Pillar 4: Enhance the quantity and quality of soil data and information
• Develop an inventory of all soil and related data in the region
and maintain an African soil database.
• Continuous training in digital soil mapping to increase soil
mapping capacity in an effort to produce new and updated
maps for the region.

8. Pillar 5: Harmonization of methods, measurements and indicators for the
sustainable management and protection of soil resources:
• Development of a harmonization procedure for soil
classification and soil description.
• Identification and support to regional reference
laboratories to support soil analyses towards
increasing national and regional soil data.

9. AfSP Events from 2017
(5th GSP Plenary Assembly)
to date

10. Digital Soil Mapping Training
• Participants from 30 African countries trained for the
preparation of the national Soil Organic Carbon Maps as
a contribution to the Global Soil Organic Carbon from 3-
7 July 2017 at Nairobi, Kenya.
• Participants from 5 African countries also benefitted
from capacity development to support the GSOCMap
production from 5-16 June at ISRIC, Netherlands.

11. Workshop on Soil Governance in Kampala,
Uganda on 26/27 September 2017
• AfSP Chair, Prof. Chude, participated in a Soil Governance Workshop in
Kampala, Uganda and made a presentation “Major challenges for sustainable
soil management in Africa: factual and legal issues” which gave details of what
the GSP, ITPS and AfSP are doing in promoting SSM in Africa.
World Soil Day/Annual General Meeting of Soil Science
Society of Ghana (SSSG)
• 7 December 2017, University of Cape Coast
• Theme: Caring for the planet starts from the ground
• Topics discussed
1. Soil organic matter in mitigating against climate change.
2. The impact of plant protection elements on the environment and
human health.
3. Soil pollution

12. Nigeria Report: World Soil Day 2017
• To address
• ignorance about the importance of soil and
• the degree to which we take advantage of all that it offers which
has led to a drastic reduction in its quality
• make World Soil Day known to more people than just scientists
• WSD was celebrated in 3 different Universities via
• Workshops
• Road works
• Symposiums, etc.
• 42nd Annual Conference of the Soil Science Society (SSSN) of
Nigeria

13. Challenges
• Funding
Due to unavailability of funds, most countries
could not implement their SSM plans.
• SSM not considered a priority by decision makers
• Insufficient policy support for SSM
• Soil fertility management not adapted to local
conditions
• Ineffective implementation of existing technologies
• Low purchasing power of farmers

14. Recommendations
• Need for soil experts to advocate for soil-related
issues to be made top priority by their governments.
• Rapid development and implementation of concrete
activities towards healthy/fertile soils.
• AfSP Implementation Plan on SSM should be funded
by GSP partners towards boosting soil productivity for
a food secured Africa.