article · European Journal of Soil Science
Soil health and fertility are vital for food security, economic growth, and climate change resilience across Africa. Major threats driving soil degradation include erosion, desertification, nutrient imbalances, soil acidity, salinisation, deforestation, and soil compaction. These issues directly impair agricultural productivity and human well-being, leading to the loss of fertile land, biodiversity decline, heightened greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient depletion, and malnutrition. Resolving these challenges requires diverse, context-specific interventions rather than a uniform approach. Proposed responses include afforestation of degraded land, integrated landscape and rangeland management, and robust soil conservation practices. Implementing sustainable farming methods such as conservation agriculture, crop rotation, agroforestry, and organic farming plays an essential role. Additionally, strengthening regional and national policy frameworks alongside community education and engagement is crucial to sustaining African soil systems.
Healthy soils are the foundation of food production, human nutrition, and climate resilience. In Africa, widespread land degradation threatens agricultural livelihoods and accelerates environmental damage through carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. Understanding the diverse causes of soil depletion helps land managers, communities, and policymakers adopt coordinated practices that safeguard fertile land, improve crop yields, and protect public health.
The abstract outlines broad land-management practices and policy needs rather than specific commercial products or proprietary tools. Opportunities for application exist for agricultural practitioners, conservation project developers, and agroforestry enterprises deploying established techniques such as organic farming, conservation agriculture, and landscape restoration. Because the abstract focuses on general methods and community-level interventions, it points to applied, existing practices rather than early-stage intellectual property.
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ABSTRACT Promoting food security, fostering economic growth, and building resilience to climate change are crucial priorities in Africa, where the health and fertility of soils play a key role. Raising awareness about soil‐related issues and finding potential solutions are vital for addressing the complex interplay of factors affecting soils across the African continent. This paper is written in three parts. The first part highlights and discusses the current problems which include soil erosion, desertification, nutrient imbalances, acidity, salinization, deforestation, and soil compaction. The second part highlights the effects of the identified causes on soil and agricultural productivity, and human health, which included but was not limited to loss of fertile land and biodiversity, increased carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nutrient depletion, loss of ecosystem services, malnutrition, and other human health issues. The third part proffers potential solutions to tackle soil degradation in Africa. Some of the suggested solutions include afforestation of degraded land, integrated landscape management that involves innovative soil fertility and rangeland management, and effective soil conservation measures to combat erosion. Strengthening policy implementation at regional and country levels, such as awareness creation, education, and community engagement on soils as the basis of human existence, is also crucial. We concluded that no single solution fits all while addressing soil degradation in Africa, but integrated approaches that promote sustainable soil management, such as conservation agriculture, crop rotation, agroforestry, afforestation, organic farming, and community engagement, would have a significant impact in resolving the menace of soil degradation.
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DOI: 10.1111/ejss.70069
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