Living soils: Creating a more sustainable and food secure future

Nothing in agriculture is as elemental as soil – nutrient-rich and teeming with life, it is the foundation of our food systems. As we observe Soil Health Day on June 23rd, we’re reminded that these living soils are delicately intertwined with the futures of food security and our planet.?

Healthy soils are productive soils, essential for us to grow enough food to feed a global population of 9.8 billion people by the year 2050. Soils also sequester an estimated 75 percent of the carbon found in land – about 2,500 gigatons of carbon – and serve as critical tool in addressing climate change. Conversely, soil erosion through overuse and mismanagement of land releases carbon into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change and putting more pressure on already strained food systems.

These challenges can be acutely observed in the Americas, where land degradation and drought have had a dramatic impact on regional food security. The Living Soils of the Americas initiative was established in 2020 to encourage the adoption of science-based best agricultural practices at the nexus of soil health, carbon sequestration, and productivity. The initiative is a collaboration between the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and Dr. Rattan Lal, the 2020 laureate of the World Food Prize and the world’s foremost expert on soils.?

To better understand the goals and vision of the Living Soils initiative, I spoke with my colleague Alessandra Fajardo, Food Value Chains Partnership Director in Bayer’s Stakeholder Affairs and Strategy department. Her work is focused on enabling partnerships that make more sustainable agriculture possible.

You and I have a lot in common, Alessandra! We both grew up in Brazil and ended up working in sustainable agriculture. How has your background impacted your work??

My background has a great influence on what I do today! I graduated in Agronomy Engineering and have always tried to work for companies that are committed to producing more while preserving the environment. This trajectory started in the 2000s when biotechnology was first approved in Brazil and helped reduce diesel and water consumption. Today at Bayer, we use digital agriculture technologies and are working with soil organic carbon to curb land degradation, boost productivity and help address the climate impacts of agriculture.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of working in sustainable agriculture and soil health? What motivates you to continue this urgent work??

As you know, our current food production system is responsible for more than one quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yet we must increase food production 50% by 2050 to feed a growing population. How we close the productivity gap while keeping GHG emissions in check is perhaps the greatest challenge the agriculture sector faces today.?

One of the paths to addressing the multiple challenges of agricultural production lies in soil and the importance of its conservation. I'm so glad that Bayer is investing in soil and low carbon solutions to farming, including sustainability commitments to reduce both crop intensity-based GHG emissions and the impact of our product portfolio by 30 percent, and the empowerment of 100M smallholder farmers. Our programs like ProCarbon contribute to our goals and help farmers adopt low carbon agriculture techniques.

Last year, we joined Living Soils of the Americas, which was incredibly exciting! What makes you so passionate about this initiative??

I'm so excited to be part of this project. It is not every day that we have a chance to work with IICA on a program that can cover the entire Americas region. Living Soils embraces 3 pillars of low carbon agriculture:?

1. Training farmers about smart climate and low carbon agricultural best practices that they can incorporate into their farming activities.
2. Establishing a protocol to measure soil organic carbon so that our efforts are backed by good data
3. Engaging governments to launch the initiative in the crop systems and value chains most important to their countries.??

Since the Living Soils of the Americas launch, what outcomes of this partnership are you most proud of???

We are about to start the program in Brazil and Mexico! I’m proud that farmers in those countries will soon be able to adopt the Living Soils protocol.?

Farmers are central to every initiative we pursue at Bayer. Is there a personal testimony that you feel best highlights the benefits of the Living Soils initiative?

Yes! I had a chance to talk to a coffee farmer in Brazil who really made an impression. He said “I really want to adopt this program. I'm tired of being accused of deforestation or not being a good sustainable farmer – now with a methodology I can prove it that I am.”

What have you learned from being a part of the Living Soils initiative? What will you take with you moving forward??

The Living Soils initiative underscores for me the importance of collaboration to achieve the goals of improving soil health and slowing or reversing land degradation. First is our deepening relationship with IICA – I’m proud of Bayer’s role as the first partner to join the initiative in 2021, and am excited for what the future holds as we build on our partnership to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions for the agriculture sector. But this initiative is also bigger than us, and it will require a multi-stakeholder effort to build on the synergy potential found in soil health to sequester carbon, regenerate soil and boost productivity. The Living Soils initiative is drawing upon partners in the public sector, private sector, civil society organizations, governments and the smallholder farmers at the front line of managing land and soil. Only together can we achieve the kind of transformative success to which this initiative aspires.

Five years from now, what would you like to see the initiative achieve? Where would you like to see expansion of the program?

I would like to see:?

1. The program implemented and used for main crops in countries across the Americas.
2. Soil organic carbon included in the equation for GHG footprint calculation.
3. A green finance tool developed for farmers in the Living Soils program.

Even though soil science is deeply complex, if you had to pick one simple message that you want everyone to remember – and to tell their colleagues, what would it be?

Here I can share a phrase from Prof. Rattan Lal that says, “People are a mirror image of the soil they live upon.” For us to be healthy, soils need to be healthy.?

Why are private-public partnerships so crucial for advancing sustainable agriculture practices??

Public-private partnerships bring the benefit of sharing technology and innovation, expertise between parties for a common goal, like sustainable agriculture. We have several examples of partnerships, including long-term ones, with collaboration and exchange of experiences with several universities, research bodies like EMBRAPA and, of course, with IICA itself.

You’ve championed sustainable agriculture for over 20 years. What excites you the most about the future of sustainable agriculture??

Through our collaboration with food companies, farmers, and other stakeholders along the chain, I believe that we are on the way to help reduce the impact of climate change. We’re always striving for a more sustainable agriculture with the lowest possible impact. I strongly believe in the umbrella of sustainable agriculture as a beacon for the various pillars of action that can be taken to protect the health of our food systems and our planet.?