Behaviour change, sustainable soil use practices key in saving our soils
Eustace Muriuki
As the world celebrated World Soil Day over the weekend (December 5), our soils the sustainer of life on earth is neither appreciated nor understood.
We lose thousands of hectares of good land/soil through pollution, erosion, salinity and nutrient degradation and these elements manifest differently and it is time to relook and redefine our relationship and care for our soils.
Elevating the status of the soils, appreciating and understanding soils and knowing how best to make soils work for us must be woven into our conversations and democratised by encouraging longterm behaviour change and adoption.
Many soil problems have been caused by unhealthy or unsustainable human behaviour hence why we need to adapt new relationships and lasting behaviour to save our soils.
Being a finite resource, how we sustainably manage our soils moving forward is a factor of knowledge and how we lead our lives.
Small changes to our daily behaviours can increase the long-term impact of Sustainable Soil Management (SSM) from how we dispose waste to how we farm and apply fertiliser and maintain cover crops we can begin to see significant improvement in the quality and output of our soils.
Further, we must also address the general lack of societal awareness of the importance of soil. Indifference and knowledge gaps are the main underlying causes of unsustainable soils management practices.
The European Union has identified six interlinked elements that inform and help deliver on SSM namely policy, investment, education, extension services, public awareness and technical cooperation.
Their plan of action calls for a systematic awareness raising campaign on how soil relates to people’s everyday lives through messaging, a sustained long-term outreach and engagement programme and significant increase in investments to support such actions.
For players in the fertiliser industry, SSM is thus of great importance with two seemingly contradictory challenges: the greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of soils and waterways caused by overuse or misuse of fertilisers and the low yields associated with underusing fertilisers.
Degrading soils
Applying science into farming can no longer be ignored and farmers must be made aware of the importance, savings and potential rewards of soil testing and subsequent use of right and effective fertilisers on their farms.
In Kenya soil testing facilities are available, but awareness and uptake has been low.
As a result, we have employed a lot of guesswork in our farming and in the process losing money on inputs that don’t deliver while also degrading our soils.
New developments ahead of the 2021 planting season will see the launching of Fertiplant East Africa Limited, the regions first NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) Granulation Plant that will produce tailor-made fertilisers informed by soil tests and designed to address soil nutrient deficiencies and plant nutrient needs eliminating guesswork, over and under nutrition. The writer is the managing Director Mea Limited and a soil scientist
