Soil Health Practices: Common Ground on Experience and Knowledge

Agricultural soils are a strategic resource for states, as they are indispensable in feeding the population, and are thus important for food security. If, on the one hand, they can support solid economic activity, which is particularly important in rural areas where agriculture constitutes the spinal column of human activity, they are also a fragile resource. Soil is like a living being that has to be nourished, balanced, and cannot be exhausted, at the risk of becoming “dead earth.”

Agricultural activity, in order to be sustainable, must first be able to protect soils. This means maintaining a sufficient level of organic matter, fighting against depletion in minerals and erosion, and also improving water retention. That also plays a role in the resilience of agricultural systems. Agronomic practices that are more in line with the soil cycle and environmentally effective (such as agroecology, organic farming, regenerative agriculture, conservation farming…) enhance the ability of these systems to adapt to climate change, to store carbon in soils, and, more generally, to increase the production capacity of soils while also respecting the environment, thus increasing global food security.