The first international conference on Afro- Mediterranean soils was held from the 18-19th December 2015 at the Palmeraie Golf palace hotel in Marrakech- Morocco. The two day conference was organized by the National Agricultural Research Institute (INERA) of Morocco, the OCP Foundation of Morocco and the Food and Agricultural Organization. The conference had six sessions aimed at highlighting the role of soils in minimizing the adverse effects of climate change, the need and strategies for the prudent management of soils. The sessions included:
1. Carbon management, sequestration and Climate-Smart Agriculture
2. Soil erosion and conservation measures
3. Soil information and modeling
4. Soil in Africa: quality and land degradation monitoring
5. Soil fertility management and crop fertilization
6. Linking research to extension for eco-efficient soil management
The 68th UN General Assembly declared 2015 as the International Year of Soils (IYS) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was nominated to facilitate the implementation of the IYS in collaboration with governments, relevant organizations, non-governmental organizations and all other relevant stakeholders. The IYS aimed to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of soils for food security and essential ecosystem functions.
Healthy soils are crucial for ensuring food and fiber productions, resilience, adaptation and mitigation to climate change and variability. These challenges are more alarming in Afro-Mediterranean countries. As global economic growth and demographic shifts increase in these countries, the demand for vegetation in general and by products in particular (such as wood), animal feed, increases too, thus putting soils under tremendous pressure and rising their risk of degradation. In fact, desertification and soil degradation (erosion, salinization, etc.) are features of the landscape in these countries. Therefore, it is of capital importance to shift these trends by developing a new vision, including recent developments and technologies for managing soils to ensure a better fertility and environment conservation, and respond to the Climate Smart Agriculture approach (CSA). It was against this background that the Foundation OCP and INRA Morocco in partnership with the FAO, organized the first conference on Afro-Mediterranean soils, to commemorate the International Year of Soils.
The African Conservation Tillage Network represented by Dr. Joseph Mureithi, ACT Board Director was among the twelve international .jpg)
key note speakers, and presented a key note paper titled ‘Enhancing Access to Conservation Agriculture Knowledge & Information: Experiences of the ACT-Network’. Other Key note speakers included Prof. Rattan Lal of Ohio State University, Dr. Jose Luis Rubio the vice Chair of the European Soil Bureau Network, Dr. Rainer Baritz, Soil Information Expert FAO, Rome, and Prof. Mamadou Traore of Polytechnic University of Bobo Dioulasso among others.The conference itemized the crucial roles of soils in social, environmental and economical as well as food security challenges for the future of wellbeing of African societies. While highlighting the urgent need to deepen the south-south cooperation and enrich the exchange and sharing of technologies, resources, experiences and knowledge. The debate and discussions in the workshops helped the participants to get acknowledge on the important traits to soils, crops, pastures and forestry including global warming. Several management systems were addressed and science-based options were discussed in order to regenerate soil fertility and revitalize the environment.
The importance of soils in policy and decision-making was also reviewed through needs for strong information systems, reinforcement of capacity building of all stakeholders including universities, research institutions, private laboratories, extensions services and to foster soil protection legislation and policies.
The Recommendations
The conference recognizes the importance and the implication of the COP-22 to be organized by the government of Morocco in November 2016 and recommends the creation of task force or an advisory group to prepare a road map to COP-22 for issues related to the priorities and challenges affecting African soils and climate change.
The conference proposes to further inspiration from Global Soil Partner (GSP) initiative through the implementation of World Soil Charter that addresses soil degradation, competition for resources, effects on soil productivity, environment and economy.
The scientists and academics assembled at the conference identified that soil research status in Africa should be ameliorated further through rising the volume of research and the incorporation of new innovative tools and integrative solutions for soil restoration and improvement and to upgrade scientific/research platforms while using state of the art innovations, equipment and methods (i.e. isotopic techniques for soil erosion and water productivity studies, precision techniques, monitoring tools, soil information and mapping technologies etc.).
Sparse soil information in Africa requires carrying an extensive soil survey and digital mapping for better management of lands and therefore satisfy the increasingly diverse expectations of Afro-Mediterranean societies from soils.
Fostering soil carbon sequestration and management in agricultural, pastoral and forested lands is vital for combatting and mitigating climate change and providing needed agro-ecological goods and services. Pr Rattan Lal stated that “With a great success, as exemplified by the “4 pour mille” proposal at COP-21, it is important that the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) and national societies celebrate “Decade of the Soil” from 2015 to 2024.
Integrated nutrient management, conservation agriculture and soil/water conservation need additional consideration, testing and adoptions by farmers and stakeholders through adequate approaches of dissemination and mass adoption.
Research centers should enforce their synergies in order to better improve soil research and scientific infrastructures. In this regards, the three organizing institutions commit to follow up on the recommendations and organize more conferences and support projects on soils.
More details about the conference can be accessed at http://www.soilsagriconf2015.com/