CABI joins continental level partnership to support development of African Soil Information Systems

CABI has joined a continental level partnership to support the development of Soil Information Systems (SISs) in Africa with the overall aim of helping to increase agricultural productivity, livelihoods and food and nutritional security through improving the usability of and access to soil data.

Dr Lydiah Gatere (far right) with the signed agreement.

The Coalition for Soil Information Systems in Africa will develop an African Continental Level Support Team that will work towards improving resilience to climate variability and management of natural resources.

An implementation agreement for the collaboration was signed between CABI, The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), ISRIC – World Soil Information, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

It was ratified at the 14th Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (ADFNS) commemoration and the 19th edition of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP) in Harare, Zimbabwe.

SISs for soil health in Africa

After the signing of the agreement, the organisations hosted a side event dedicated to discussing the new partnership which will adhere to the FAIR data principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

A discussion took place under Theme 3, ‘Soil Information Systems for Attainment of Soil Health in Africa.’

The partnership also follows CABI and ISRIC’s recently launched new online platform ″The SIS Framework ″– which showcases a framework for sustainable national SISs – at the Africa Food Systems Forum’s 2024 summit in Rwanda.

The framework is a central part of the Soil Information Systems Review, a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, designed to provide guidance for all key individuals and institutions who could be involved in the design and development of a new SIS or in the process of enhancing an existing one.

These include SIS owners, system developers, funders, implementing partners and research institutions.

Healthy soil is the foundation for food and nutrition security

Dr Lydiah Gatere, Climate Change Expert for Africa based at CABI’s regional centre for Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, said, ″Healthy soil is the foundation for food and nutrition security yet up to 65 percent of Africa’s productive land is degraded, which can lead to stunted productivity growth, reduced livelihoods and compromised food security.

″The Coalition for Soil Information Systems in Africa will help develop National Soil Information Systems across the continent which will provide the necessary data – for instance on how and when to use fertilizer judiciously – to help improve soil health.

″Sustainable management of Africa’s soil, using the very latest information, is vital if we are to hardness the land’s potential to feed a growing population while also minimizing the impact of agricultural production on our sensitive environment.″

Back in May at the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit held in Nairobi, CABI and ISRIC presented their initial findings on the successes and challenges of existing SISs across seven African countries, as well as USA, New Zealand and Australia. The framework is a timely response to the Nairobi declaration and action plan of improving agricultural sector in the region.

The summit sought to bring together stakeholders to highlight the crucial role of fertilizer and soil health in stimulating sustainable pro-poor productivity growth in African agriculture and to agree on an African Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan, as well as the Soil Initiative for Africa Framework (SIA).

Greater strength and capacity to have a real impact on using the SIS

Thaïsa van der Woude, Project Manager at ISRIC – World Soil Information, said, ″By combining our shared expertise in partnership we have greater strength and capacity to have a real impact on using soil information systems as a crucial tool for promoting soil health across Africa.

″Together we are better placed to systematically collecting data, harmonizing it, and providing information to soil users to improve their decision-making – this will impact smallholder farmers who rely upon fertile land for improved yields and their livelihoods.″

Previous attempts to produce soil data in Africa have been inconsistent, with data collected and analyzed using various methodologies, making it challenging to integrate existing datasets.

Currently, only five countries in Africa have functional online national soil information systems, highlighting a significant gap in accessible soil information across the continent.

To achieve the goal of restoring 30% of Africa’s arable soil to a healthy state, soil information systems are needed and must be scaled up to encompass all 55 countries.

Ms van der Woude said, ″Building on the Soils4Africa’s Open-data Soil Information System, it is hoped that our work will further enable advisories, agri-businesses, researchers and policy makers work towards intensification of agricultural in a sustainable way for the small-holder farmers which also protects the health of Africa’s soils.″

Part of the work of the African Continental Level Support Team will involve rescuing legacy data, developing fallback options for newly generated data, provide tools, standards, framework and methods, provide capacity strengthening programmes and developing continental level soil information products with national partners.

The above information will be made available through a continental soil information hub hosted by FARA on behalf of the African Union (AU).

Sustainable National Soil Information Systems

Find out more here about how CABI is working with ISRIC – World Soil Information to support with the design and development of National Soil Information Systems as part of the project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.