In April 2019, the first Joint Meeting of Arab Ministers of Agriculture and Water called for “establishing a sustainable regional mechanism to build individual and institutional capacities necessary to plan, design, and implement water and land management programs efficiently” in recognition of the growing threat for soil degradation in Near East and North African (NENA). The FAO responded to this call by funding the TCP/RAB/3802 project on “Capacity development for the sustainable management of soil resources in the NENA region to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. The project aims to raise awareness on the importance of soils and to conserve and manage them sustainably in eleven countries in NENA: Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kingdom of Morocco, Lebanese Republic, Republic of Iraq, Republic of Sudan, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Yemen, West Bank and Gaza Strip, Sultanate of Oman and the Syrian Arab Republic.

With 117 423 unique votes in less than 96 hours, the scientific poster contest was a great success! 

From the first day of the Global Symposium on Soils for Nutrition (GSOIL4N), participants were invited to vote for their favourite scientific poster between the 69 posters received - out of the 82 abstracts shortlisted authors - by liking the poster(s) of their choice. It was possible to vote for more than one scientific poster. However, a person could only cast one vote for each individual poster. 

The best scientific posters for each of the 4 symposium themes was announced on the last day of the meeting (29 July 2022) and won soil-related prizes including a paper-copy of the book "Soils for nutrition: state of the art".

The Global Soil Partnership photo contest! What photos outranks all the rest? Take a look at these unique pieces of work.

Soils are critical to feeding the world - providing safe and nutritious food - and sustaining life on Earth.

The publication "Soils for nutrition: state of the art" - which was launched on 26 July 2022 at the opening ceremony of the Global Symposium on Soils for Nutrition - contributes to the understanding of soil fertility processes from the perspective of food production and food security, as well as the environmental and climate change impacts associated with fertiliser misuse and overuse. It also outlines the main areas of opportunity and the way forward to address the nutrient imbalance that prevails in our current agri-food systems.

DOWNLOAD THE PUBLICATION HERE

Global Symposium on Soils for Nutrition opens

Photo caption: Ninety-five percent of global food is produced in soils.