World Soil Day 2024: Why we Urgently Need to Stop Treating Soils like Dirt and Agroecology as a Niche?
A Statement from LI-BIRD Nepal and the Himalayan Agroecology Initiative team
Soil is an invaluable natural resource that provides life-sustaining ecosystem services. The importance of soil has been recognized in ancient Vedas as a basis of survival: “Upon handful of soil our survival depends, care for it. Abuse it, the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it.”
In 2013, the UN General Assembly declared December 5th as the World Soil Day to mark every year. This year, we are celebrating the World Soil Day with the theme of “Caring for Soils: Measure, Monitor and Manage”, which underscores the importance of soil data and information to understand, advocate, take decisions and sustainably manage soil resources for sustaining life, livelihoods and nature.
Soils are limited natural resources. They are considered renewable because they are constantly forming. Though this is true, their formation occurs at extremely slow rates. In fact, one inch of topsoil can take several hundred years or more to develop. In optimum conditions and a mild climate, it takes between 200-400 years to form 1cm of new soil. [1]
Soil and land are the foundation of agriculture, biodiversity, sustainable livelihood systems, as healthy soils are the basis for food, nutrition, shelter, income and economy. Healthy soil directly contributes towards achieving eight Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Climate Action (SDG 13), and Life on Land (SDG 15), while indirectly influencing additional five goals, including Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3). Hence, soil is central to the global challenges which the people and nature are facing and struggling to find solutions these days.
However, it is a matter of extreme concern that there is a rapid decline in soil quality throughout the world due to changes in physical, chemical and biological features. UNESCO (2024) reports that approximately 75% of the world's land is degraded, with projections of rising to 90% by 2050, directly impacting 3.2 billion people. When land is degraded, it impacts food security, water availability and ecosystem health, directly affecting half of humanity, and causing a loss of about US$40 trillion worth of ecosystem services each year — nearly half of the global GDP of $93 trillion in 2021. Land degradation is also considered “the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss,” and considerably contributes to climate change: Between 2000 and 2009, annual greenhouse gas emissions from degraded land accounted for up to 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. [2]
[1] Source: https://www.jic.ac.uk/advances/soil-the-foundation-of-life-on-earth/
[2] Source: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/land
The Situation in Nepal
One of the participating countries in the Himalayan Agroecology Initiative is Nepal. Nepal's diverse topography, mountainous terrain and harsh climatic conditions make its soils and ecosystems highly susceptible to erosion and degradation. The Asian Development Bank (2024) highlights that annual soil losses in Nepal's hilly regions range from 12 to 50 tons per hectare, adversely affecting agricultural productivity, livelihoods and ecosystems.
Deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices, and landslides contribute to the rapid loss of topsoil, which affects agricultural productivity and increases the risk of flooding downstream. Additionally, soil pollution due to excessive use of agrochemicals such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides in Nepal combined with mono cropping particularly in plain and commercial production areas has contributed to declining soil fertility, with low organic matter content dropping below 2%, far below the healthy range of 3–5% (Farsight Nepal, 2024). Recent soil analysis reports have indicated that there Nepal’s soil health across terai, the main food basket of the country is deteriorating due to low organic matter content (<1.7% OM) and widespread deficiency of major and micronutrients particularly the nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc and boron, which are critical for plant growth and systems functioning.
A study (Joshi et al, 2024) in Nepal found that adopting agroecological approaches and practices could reduce soil erosion by up to 50% and enhance soil fertility, while boosting farm productivity. Agroecological approaches and practices such as farm diversification with livestock integration, cover cropping, crop rotation with legumes, agroforestry and organic farming, help restore soil fertility, increase water retention, and enhance above and underground biodiversity. However, the adoption of agroecological approaches is happening at a pace by far too slow and is hampered by numerous factors.
Towards a National Agroecology Roadmap for Nepal
Soil health and ecosystem functioning in Nepal and elsewhere are interconnected issues that require comprehensive approach and holistic solutions. Though there are efforts to address some of these challenges through soil conservation, reforestation and watershed protection programmes, these are fragmented and insufficient to be able to ensure the long-term sustainability of Nepal's ecosystems and soils. National holistic policy and programmatic initiatives that create greater awareness and build capacities, establish databases along with a robust monitoring and information systems, mobilize sectors and stakeholders including communities for research, education and extension, are essential to addressing soil degradation and preserving ecosystems in the face of growing environmental pressures and climate change.
On this backdrop, Nepal is preparing a National Agroecology Roadmap, with support of Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD), a Nepal based NGO active on the sector of agrobiodiversity, agriculture, climate change adaption and sustainable natural resource management, as well as the World Future Council (WFC) and IFOAM - Organics International. The roadmap process engages multi-sectoral stakeholders representing federal and provincial governments, civil society and farmers’ organizations, experts and practitioners, to define the best pathways forward.
The draft roadmap document has identified four pillars for agroecology transitions in Nepal, among which healthy agroecosystems is the first one. This fundamental pillar emphasizes to protect, restore and maintain agroecosystem health through increased assessment, capacity building and by ensuring access and availability of ecologically sound production inputs such as organic alternatives to agrochemicals among farmers and traders. The roadmap advocates for important policy and programmatic shifts, and for coordinated efforts for increasing investment in research and localized agroecological solutions. It also highlights the importance of de-incentivizing the use of agrochemicals together with creating a greater awareness among policymakers, communities and stakeholders. There is a high emphasis on strengthening the understanding, assessment, monitoring and enhancing of soil health, as it is the foundation of agroecological food systems. Nepal’s Agroecology Roadmap is thus directly contributing to the Government’s goal to build resilient, equitable and sustainable food systems for which a comprehensive strategic document entitled “Nepal’s Food Systems Transformation: Pathways and Actions” has been developed and is under the process of implementation.
The Himalayan Agroecology Initiative is a strategic endeavour that works closely with governments and with the support of a broad group of stakeholders, to support the emergence of multi-stakeholder processes that develop, build capacities and facilitate the implementation of agroecological food systems roadmaps. Other participating countries in the Himalayan Agroecology Initiative besides Nepal, are India and Bhutan. Its main aim is to improve livelihoods and sustainability and to empower farmers, farmer producer organizations and other key stakeholders so they better benefit of public policies, including those that support organic and natural agriculture, food processing, marketing, distribution and consumption.
