How participatory soil mapping to promote healthy soils could be a win-win
Soil is one of humanity's life support systems. It underpins food production, provides plants with a foothold and nutrients to grow, filters and regulates rainwater discharge, and accommodates an array of biodiversity. It also helps to regulate Earth's climate and, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), stores more carbon than the atmosphere and all of the world's forests combined.
Indeed, we cannot overstate the fundamental role of healthy soils for well-being and human life. Sadly, soil health is vulnerable across the globe as soils are being damaged and threatened by human activities. Introducing sustainable land management techniques could help restore our soils. But first, there is a need to monitor, protect, and understand soil dynamics and increase soil health as a cost-effective triple win for the planet, climate, and people.
Thanks to innovation, scientific research, and concerted action, the vision for healthier and more productive soils is now more precise. Angela Bwalya, a Senior Agricultural Researcher and a 2019 One Planet Laureate Candidate, works with Zambian farmers to improve soil nutrients and water retention for enhanced yields.
"I get joy from knowing that my research deals with the most fundamental component of farming, which is the primary source of livelihood for many Zambians," says Angela.
In Zambia, agriculture contributes 19 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Still, the adverse effects of climate change have exacerbated soil fertility which has lowered crop yields and income for the farmers. Bwalya's research provides location-specific guidelines on using organic and inorganic fertilizers.
As a research officer at the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), she conducts trials to validate new fertilizer formulations.
Driven by her desire to eliminate hunger and improve food security, she works with farmers to identify working solutions and their implementation. She adds that working with the farmers from research design to implementation has concreted her sustainable soil management recommendations. She is keen to apply the gender lens in her research by involving both genders in every phase and disintegrating the findings to ensure better adoption by each gender.
Angela also trains farmers on climate change adaptation techniques, including crop rotation which sustains yields and reduces the risk of harvest loss. "We teach them that diversifying their crops, adding more crops to the conventional maize farming is beneficial to them and the environment," she says.
Angela notes that through the One Planet Fellowship, she has gained skills in leadership and networking, which she is putting to good use at her institution, where she is passing the knowledge acquired to junior researchers.
Through the Fellowship, she has built a network of fellow scientists working to address the same challenges in their respective countries.
Looking forward, Angela is considering pursuing a Ph.D. in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing to integrate more data into her research and create geographically referenced soil databases.
The One Planet Fellowship is equipping and investing in the next generation of scientists like Angela Bwalya to provide home-grown solutions to the increasingly complex challenges of climate change by building their leadership, mentoring, networking, and scientific research skills.
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