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Sifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor
Soil health has a lot to tell about the crop yields, the quality of the environment, sustaining plant life and the rest of the food chain from farmer, industry and to the final consumer.
Destruction of soil means the damage of the food security systems.
It is quite worrying that soil health in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa is declining, leading to poor yields despite the huge amount of fertilisers and chemicals we continue to pump.
The soil is dying and the impact of this is grim.
Healthier soils grow better, more resilient and more nutritious crops, increasing profit for farmers.
In addition, healthy soils also absorb more water and atmospheric carbon, helping to address water scarcity and climate change, two of the biggest problems facing the world today.
The country’s agricultural system now faces numerous challenges including the pressures of irregular rainfall patterns.
Irregular rainfall can lead to both droughts and flooding, both of which directly impact soil health.
Maize yields per hectare in Zimbabwe are declining despite the huge amounts of fertilisers being applied.
Soil management and soil physics now matters most given the rapidly increasing population and declining crop yields.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the reality of declining soil health is concerning, particularly as the global population is set to increase to more than 9,5 billion people by 2050.
FAO states that there will be pressure to supply enough food and clean water to meet the needs of the 9,5 billion people.
For the world to meet the demand, we will need healthy soils to support the growth of adequate food.
Conversations around soil fertility issues are now more pressing than ever before.
And, the recent launch of a four-year research project on climate smart agriculture — called the Resilience Building through Agro-ecological Intensification in Zimbabwe (RAIZ) is a welcome initiative that will help support the country’s efforts to restore the quality of the soil.
Apart from soil improvement, the project will help the country’s transition to more climate-smart practices which will increase its resiliency to food supply shocks and address the worst effects of climate change.
The EU has funded the RAIZ project which will be implemented in Murewa, Mutoko and Mudzi districts in Mashonaland East province to the tune of €4 million.
This project will be implemented by a consortium of the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the University of Zimbabwe.
Professor Regis Chikowo, a UZ agronomist and RAIZ project member, said researchers must be at the forefront of helping farmers with solutions to reverse soil degradation trends and take climate-smart actions that could restore soil health.
“The country’s soil health has gone very low and there is a reduced response to fertilisers. The downward spiral of soil degradation results in low yields,” he said.
“Poor soils basically result in a maize poverty trap. It is a poverty trap that we should try and solve. Good productivity could be attained through good and healthy soil. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says Southern Africa will suffer climate change extremes. By 2050 it is estimated that maize yields will decrease by 30 percent.”
The research project is expected to generate knowledge about soil health in three districts in Mashonaland East province.
Prof Chikowo said the team intends to come up with solutions and tools for farmers in these districts to better manage their soils and increase crop yields.
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development chief director responsible for agricultural advisory services, Prof Obert Jiri said declining soil quality was a major concern for the country.
“This is an important project for the country. It will help to strengthen the country’s resilience to climate shocks. It will also help us to bounce back better on issues of resilience,” he said.
“Issues around poor soil quality are of major concern to us. We need to increase our production and we need to enhance production per unit area. In Zimbabwe, our average yield is around 800kilogramme per hectare and yet with improved soil quality we could easily attain four tonnes per hectare.”
The project is designed to enhance the productivity and health of local soils.
“Good food production systems can be realised through a good climate and good soils,” said Prof Chikowo.
“Recycling nutrients, integrating crops and livestock and promoting the growing of leguminous crops could help reduce the use of synthetic fertilisers and chemicals.”
He said promoting good soil health could improve the soil’s water retention, structure and fertility, which leads to healthier plants, less water runoff, and a net reduction in atmospheric carbon.
Dr Francois Affholder, a CIRAD scientist and RAIZ project co-ordinator said examining soil health and its role crop production in Murehwa, Mutoko and Mudzi could help the country to produce accurate, science-based information about what actions needed to be taken for the soil in these districts to remain productive.
He said closer collaboration was key for all stakeholders that would be involved in the project.
“We need to work together closely to come up with tools that will help farmers enhance soil health and increase their productivity,” he said. “Generating science – based information is vital for response strategies for the farmers.”
Scientists who attended the launch of the RAIZ project all felt it was important to invest in soil health.
This could help build better water-holding capacity in the soil and reduce water runoff.
Good soil health, they said, was critical in the building of a sustainable food industry and meeting the changing tastes of consumers who are increasingly becoming conscious about their health.
Healthy soil requires living mixtures of minerals, microbes, air, water and around four percent organic matter, such as carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen in order to sustain plant growth.
But due to farming methods such as mono-cropping, intensive tilling, lack of cover crops and the heavy use of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers, FAO says approximately one third of the world’s productive topsoil has been depleted, leaving it with just half a percent of organic matter — eight times less than it needs.
Soil health is a critical element of Zimbabwe’s food and nutritional security. It is a strategic resource that requires all hands on the deck to promote regenerative and soil-centric farming practices.
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