Forum global sur la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition (Forum FSN)

Please find attached my comments as track changes in the document.

My many comment is that the user guide should emphasize the need to understand the soil as (1) a natural body like animal, crop, three: the implication is that we need to understand it clearly and to communicate it not only in a systematic classification but also in a live language (e.g. farmers' soil nomenclature). The farmers' soil nomenclature should be used in agriculture planning and extension. (2) a set of soil properties well explained with soil forming factor equation and the soil landscape relationship. We can only achieve sustainable soil fertility management if we understand the soil properties and their spatial distribution.

Kind regards,

Pascal

Pascal N. Rushemuka (PhD). Agri-Environmental Senior Soil Scientist at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB).

Tel: +250783471871

and I continue to highly recommend world leaders of your caliber to meet with Mr. Dave Ewoldt  of Tucson, Arizona, about the cohesive framework required, across areas of expertise, to finally elevate your understanding of true sustainability, and receive additional knowledge that can clarify, generate momentum, and help build in continual inspiration from powerful ongoing informative feedback and assessments, confident collaborative efforts and sustainable results.

I know how difficult it is to step out of established cadres; however, when a community of the size of Tucson -- described by Dr. Jonathan Overpeck of the University of Arizona as ground-zero for climate change in the United States -- understands seasoned expertise at its finest, it would seem to support the recommendation I make in regards to FAO's online consultation for developing the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management.

Thank you for admitting this submittal for timely expert consultation, to vitally enhance the Guidelines and provide support and missing understanding to everyone involved.

Myself, an ongoing cheerleader, including on matters of Conservation Agriculture, keep hoping for this consultation to take place soon.  On behalf of People and Planet.

Sincerely and with respectful regards,

Danielle Charbonneau

Community and Environmental Advocate

volunteer, non-affiliated

Granby, Québec, Canada

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please find enclosed to this email the ESA contribution to the draft guidelines. On behalf of ESA I congratulate for the draft, it was developed taken into account all the threats for a sustainable soil management. We just underlined on one point the possibility to make use of breeding as tool to develop useful solutions when it comes to issues related to crop nutrients intake and a comment on the dissemination paragraph.

You will find more in the second file, especially in regards to the involvement of stakeholders and communication. I work for ESA in Brussels and simultaneously I am following a Master Degree in Food Security, and the paper attached focuses on the potential contribution of the seed and plant breeding sector towards a more sustainable soil management. The topic is approached from a very EU perspective and it was developed as final paper of a module on soil management I took, but I think it is a different and therefore interesting viewpoint for you.

I remain at your disposal for any further questions you might have.

Kind regards,

Alessia Cogliandro

As far as I am aware the ways to achieve sustainable soil management worldwide are sufficiently outlined and the key technical elements to achieve sustainable soil management are included and take account the great variety of ecosystem services provided by soils. However, I do not think that with our present state of knowledge implementing the guidelines will be sufficient to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The guidelines do identify activities that should be avoided but it seems to me, it will be very difficult without addressing social, economic and political factors to bring them about, for example reducing the number of animals grazing the land to stabilise the land surface or addressing the demand for land, especially land to be used sustainably, as population continues to grow. My main concern is with the section on Surface Soil Stability.

Although we know in general terms the causes and impacts of land degradation it seems to me from reading the FAO’s ‘Status of the World’s Soil Resources’ we do not know in many countries what is the prime cause of degradation because the land can be degraded in one, or more ways not often adequately identified. I note that erosion, especially water erosion, is the main cause of degradation in many localities, but other than plot studies what is the evidence for that? It may well be that wash erosion does remove a veneer of soil without leaving any trace, but in my experience that is rare. Indeed, when I have seen wash in action, and that can be turbid flow over a fully vegetated but saturated soil surface, the amounts moved are small and where water has ponded and then evaporated only a very thin (< 1 mm) veneer of fine textured deposits can be seen. Only where rills and gullies form is there significant loss of soil from one location to another and deposits of coarse silt and sand particles seen. I question the assumption that wash erosion strips off a veneer of soil without leaving any evidence.

Rainsplash erosion may move large amounts of soil short distances, but it is flowing water which transports soil particles longer distances, so redistributing soil rapidly within a field/landscape/catchment. I note that in the GLASOD assessment of degradation wash erosion (Wt) is distinguished from the rills and gullies of terrain deformation (Wd). Moreover, from the images that often accompany assessments of what is termed wash erosion as assessed by the Universal Soil Loss Equation, or some form of it, small rills can be seen, but because of the size of the plot, not large ones. A key question it seems to me is how large and how long does a rill have to be before it is put in the wash or the deformation/rill class? As there is also in plot experiments a driver, or pull factor in the experiments, i.e. an increase in velocity of flow at the base of the plot where runoff is collected, and that it is accepted that plot experiments often overestimate erosion at lower rates, how much does the USLE overestimate erosion rates? This is important when it appears that most figures of erosion loss (rates of erosion) are based on the equation. In other words, is the importance of erosion over-stated and that the factor that is most degrading the soil is, for example, loss of organic matter, loss of fertility or an increase in acidity?

The above comments relate to cultivated land. Bare soil can be initiated by animals on very gentle slopes. Erosion of bare soil initiated and maintained by grazing animals is more difficult to assess than water erosion of cultivated land, especially if the edges of the bare soil are not sharply defined. Very often, in my admittedly limited experience of semiarid land, where sheet flow from a compacted grazed surface meets bare soil initiated in some way by animals, flow is concentrated often forming a very low ‘micro-cliff’ there. Very often however bare soil once initiated by animals is also eroded by the hooves of animals, by wind, and in colder climates by frost action, and the constant disturbance of the bare soil surface stops colonisation of the surface by vegetation. It seems to me estimates of erosion of grazing land using the USLE are not appropriate. Indeed, the equation was not devised to do that, it was devised to estimate water erosion of cultivated land.

 Some form of field assessment and monitoring of erosion is needed. Much fieldwork - mapping and monitoring - is needed to gain knowledge of soils, their distribution and properties, identify where soils are compacted, identify contaminated sites and sites susceptible to contamination, and assess erosion. It is unlikely that remote sensing techniques will do the job adequately. The designs of the mapping and monitoring schemes are topics for discussion, but the schemes will need many workers/researchers going into the field.

Two other points come to mind. Firstly, and it is rightly noted in the draft document, local users of the soil are important. That cannot be stressed enough. Very often changes in how the land is managed appear to be imposed top down without the views of the indigenous farmer being taken into account. Any changes will have to be done with great care and sensitivity and with the cooperation of the local farmer. It seems to me we need to know what the indigenous farmer thinks, s/he may not think there is a problem, especially if soils are inherently infertile and yields are not trending in a markedly downward direction. Secondly, I support disturbing the soil as little as possible when drilling crops, but only if herbicides are not key to controlling weeds, there are too many other environmental factors at risk, for example weed resistance and pollution of water courses if herbicides are to be used to control weeds.

Dr R Evans

Visiting fellow,

Global Sustainability Institute,

Anglia Ruskin University,

East Road,

Cambridge

UK

Dear FSN Moderator(s),

On behalf of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) and its partners, I would like to first of all thank you for the opportunity to contribute toward this document. We agree that this document is well thought out and well argued and provides reasonable solutions and suggestions.

Below and also attached to this message, you will find several comments/suggestions on soil management based on our experience and research.

Comment 1 by Dr. Jessica McCarty, Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Technology,Research Scientist II, Michigan Tech Research Institute:

Page 7, Section 2.2 - This draft is missing a specific opportunity to call out types of organic matter/residue removal and disturbance (which is needed to identify activities of importance to soil and important to SDGs related to soil health). I propose that a modification to the second bullet under 'Surface Soil Stability' read: "The removal of materials, mechanically, by hand, or via open burning, from the soil surface reduces the organic and mineral nutrient pool available for microbial processing and plant uptake and reduces the soil organic carbon store of the soil."

Comment 2 by Dr. McCarty:

Page 13, Section 3.3 - I propose a bullet be added to the section on 'Guidelines for maintenance and enhancement of a sufficient organic cover' to cover all key technical aspects of soil management:

• Open burning of excess residues should be avoided to maintain sufficient organic matter as well as to prevent fire damage to the topsoil, which will result in further nutrient depletion and increased potential for erosion.

Comment 3 by Mr. Alex Gittelson, ICCI Eurasia Program Manager:

Page 10, Section on water retention - Removal of residue and materials negatively affects water retention by removing shading and protection from wind erosion. I propose a bullet be added on this threat:

• The removal of residue or materials, mechanically, by hand, or through agricultural burning, negatively affects shading and water retention in soil, which contributes toward nutrient depletion, reduction of soil moisture, and wind erosion.

I hope you find these comments/contributions useful.

Best regards,

Alex

Alex Gittelson

ICCI Eurasia Program Manager

Dear colleagues congratulations for the proposal of the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSM). These guidelines should be a significant contribution to the Objectives for Sustainable Development. I get access to the document just today, nevertheless I will be very pleased to provide some first comments, strictly as a professional with a long experience in soil and water conservation.

These guidelines are an appropiate response to the Revised World Soil Charter. Merits and demerits of the proposal are consistent with the approach of the revised charter. Thus, the greater input delivered by the guidelines is the concept of ecosystem services provided by soils to ecosystems and human well being. Also, the focus on "soil" rather on "land" is remarkable. This focus provide a new value that is the specific treatment to a basic element of the nature as is soil, rather the most complex concept of land that includes soil as well as vegetation, other biota, hydrological and ecological process, as defined in the text of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This more specific approach provide some elements for weakness in the proposal, for example: (a) lack of an accepted definition of soil included in the text, and; (b) emergence of a new legal object, soil, that it seems may requires "integrity preservation" per se, despite law of mass conservation operating under a more integrated approach.

Lack of an accepted definition of soil may produce confusion or not, especially when term "soil" may be misused to make reference to the more ample term "land". In addition, the definition of Land Degradation Neutrality adopted by the XIIth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD has the same structure of the definition for Sustainable Soil Management included in the voluntary guidelines. This situation also may create confusion  or not, but someone may considered that there is a parallel process where duplication of efforts may arise.  Inclusion of a glossary may facilitate clarification, especially in terms like "soil resistance" or "soil resilience". 

Concerning the issues of loss of a more integral view that may arise due to the underlying idea of soil preservation per se, it may be seen in the treatment of the erosion processes. The guidelines propose to get erosion rates to a minimum. In this idea erosion may be seen as a pervasive process because is intrisecaly contrary to soil preservation. But erosion is a natural process essential to landscape modelling, as well as river, stuarine a coastal biology. Minimum erosion eventually may create impacts quite similar to the construction of a dam in a river. Pressumably, a more appropiate concept in this case should be "accelerated erosion" that of course may require proper definition, but it may provide a concept for differentiation with erosion in an ecosystem approach.

There are many other comments that I would like to provide, but pressumably a revised text with change control may be more appropriate. I would appreciate very much somebody can indicate me the deadline to provide a revised text with control of changes.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Wilfredo H. Alfaro.

Forestry Engineer, M.Sc.

Dear All,

Good day!

Soil health is often intricately related with spread of invasive alien species which also should be a factor to recon with. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) defines Invasive Alien Species as an alien species which becomes established in natural or semi-natural ecosystems or habitat, an agent of change, and threatens native biological diversity. These invasive species are widely distributed in all kinds of ecosystems throughout the world, and include all categories of living organisms. Invasive species are good at exploiting bare soil and empty niches. Invasive species are generally non-natives that infest natural ecosystems, including forest, rangelands, and pastures. One way to avoid invasive species is to choose the ones that are native to the area. Natives often are adapted to a specific environmental niche, and have natural controls that keep them in balance. Invasive species, on the other hand, are tolerant against environmental extremes and possess greater flexibility for survival in wide range of conditions with high water, light and nutrient use efficiencies. Some of the invasive species also exhibit fire resistance besides better competitive ability and

allelopathy.

With warm regards,

Pradip Dey

Dear All,

Good day!

Nutrient management in India over time has specific syndrome which can be summarised by abuse of nitrogen, disuse of potassium, and generally coupled with overuse of phosphorus. It suggests inherent flaws in fertilizer application practices adopted by farmers that probably promotes imbalance in nutrient applications. The ICAR project on soil test crop response (AICRP-STCR) has used the multiple regression approach to develop relationship between crop yield on the one hand, and soil test estimates and fertilizer inputs on the other, can be effectively used to tackle such flaws. The future line of work should include, development of soil health assessment and management protocols on the basis of farming systems after superimposing agro-ecological regions, soil type, yield targeting and resource availability with broader commitment of improving soil health and reducing carbon-footprint; development of decision support tool which can be used for judicious agricultural resource management and periodic soil quality monitoring; evaluation and propagation of customized and speciality fertilizers, nano plant nutrient products; development and calibration of soil sensors for soil test crop response. Resudue burning need to be addressed holistically including energy consideration and dynamics of active / resistant pool of soil organic cabon. For salt affected soil, controlled drainage-subirrigation systems for recycling nitrate leaching from the soil profile and reduce nitrate lost in tile drainage may be advocated to all land reclamation corporation. Also there is a need to harness and manage the indigenous technical knowledge and fine-tune them to suit the modern needs. Notwithstanding the uncertainty over Kyoto commitments and instruments, the twin aspect of devising strategies for leveraging resources to tackle the challenge of low carbon transformation and strategies to enhance soil health and carbon sequestration will help in combating climate change without compromising economic development.

With warm regards,

Pradip Dey

Dear All,

Good day!

Moisture conservation enhances soil organic carbon by increasing period of vegetative cover, vegetative input to the soils and microbial population. This altogether leads to increase water stable aggregates that offer protection mechanism for longer residence time to soil organic carbon. In situ moisture conservation including inter row water harvesting, field bunding, mulching, deep ploughing and other agronomic practices such as drought tolerant cultivars, optimum plant density, and proper sowing time, balance fertilization, use of sprinklers and drips for irrigation on the undulated topography may have beneficial effect on soil organic carbon build up. Integrated and balanced use of nutrient and adoption of conservation agriculture also helps in soil carbon sequestration. Gene mining for drought avoidance is another aspect which helps in soil carbon sequestration. There are several species which have very extensive root system for mining water from large volume of soils and can survive very low water, such as Prosopis Juliflora surviving in the rainfall zone ranging from of 200 mm in Bhuj to 1000 mm around Ramnathpuram of east coast. Genetically modified plants can manage a biotic stress of droughts, salinity, heat and cold waves and such attempts may be beneficial for averting the impact of fallowing on soil organic carbon depletion. Finally, adoption of agroforestry system of land use combining agriculture, forestry, horticulture, livestock management and agrostology increases total productivity of food, feed and fuel and thereby reducing the risk of farming besides improving soil carbon sequestration. Further, region-specific amalgamated technological prescriptions refined with targeted policy analysis are required for effective implementation and obtaining positive outcomes within a finite time horizon.

With warm regards,

Pradip Dey

Dear All,

Good day!

A high aggregation on account of increased silt and clay protects SOC from decomposition by trapping them between the aggregates. Soil organic carbon is essential for enhancing soil quality, sustaining and improving food production, maintaining clean water, reducing CO2 in the atmosphere and an effective soil quality indicator. Its concentration influences physical, chemical and biological qualities of soils, quality and quantity of biological produce. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the predominant parameter that affects other physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils. Cultivation generally depletes one third to half SOC, depending upon soil texture, erosion, and vegetative cover, management regime, initial concentration, period of fallowing and inorganic carbon accumulation. Available phosphorus and potassium were reported to increase with the stability of organic carbon and vice versa. Sodium adsorption on clay complex increased with SOC depletion. Thus soil organic carbon is dynamic and a widely accepted indicator, changing with land use and management history.

With warm regards,

Pradip Dey