Up to 65 per cent of Africa’s productive land is degraded, while desertification affects 45 per cent of its total land area. Healthy soils are essential for food security, underpinning high crop and livestock productivity, improving fertilizer and water use efficiency and supporting sustained farm incomes.
To enhance soil health and fertilizer use efficiency, a comprehensive, consistent and integrated soil information system is needed – one that provides compatible data across datasets and geographies. Yet, despite the existence of public and private datasets across the African continent, harmonizing soil data remains a significant challenge.
Addressing soil data needs in East Africa
In response to this challenge, the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) and VARDA organized two in-person stakeholders’ consultation workshops in Kenya and Tanzania from 22 to 25 October. These workshops, part of a pilot initiative funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), aim to advance the soil health agenda by understanding user needs for soil data and mapping existing and developing use cases. The initiative also introduced the SoilHive platform as a tool to support these efforts.
This six-month pilot initiative, Digital Platform for Soil Health Knowledge Exchange, will prepare for a larger three-year project designed to implement a soil health agenda. The initiative focuses on Kenya and Tanzania, engaging stakeholders, conducting a scoping and mapping exercise and developing the provision of interoperable soil data and information infrastructure.
Launching the pilot initiative
At the Nairobi workshop, Gunnar Andreas Holm, Norway’sAmbassador to Kenya, Somalia and Seychelles, emphasized the importance of reliable data in agricultural systems.“We need to ensure that policy and science go hand in hand to build trust. Actors in research and science must reach farmers in a way that they [farmers] can relate and use,” stressed Holm.
CIFOR-ICRAF’s CEO, Eliane Ubalijoro, highlighted the importance of soil health in global food security.“The diverse stakeholders here demonstrate a growing collective community and action around soil health. In our efforts to combat land degradation and desertification and move from scarcity to prosperity, we need to focus on how to scale soil health globally,” said Ubalijoro. “Science is critical in supporting soil health”.
Workshop participants, following presentations at the Kenyan workshop. Photo CIFOR-ICRAF.
Engaging stakeholders and gathering insights
The workshops in Kenya and Tanzania brought together representatives from governments, research institutions, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. Participants discussed and evaluated existing soil data, developed targeted use cases for evidence-based decision-making and explored the SoilHive platform. Interactive tools, such as data walls, were used to evaluate data needs, identify gaps and discuss potential features.
“Momentum is growing around soil health,” said Leigh Ann Winowiecki, CIFOR-ICRAF’s Systems scientist and the global Soil and Land Health Theme leader. “However, there is a need to improve data collection, storage, management and sharing to influence policy and practice.”
The project’s pilot phase is laying the groundwork for establishing a collaborative and conducive framework for expanding the accessibility of soil data, information and knowledge. This framework not only facilitates the harmonization of soil data but also identifies pathways to further advance and scale the exchange of data, information and knowledge on soil among researchers, government agencies, policymakers, private enterprises and farmers across East Africa.
Panellists during a panel discussion on the status of soil health during the Kenyan workshop. Photo CIFOR-ICRAF
“We explored the actions needed and challenges faced to develop key soil health use cases in Kenya and Tanzania,” said Simone Sala, Global Soil and Ecosystems Solutions director at VARDA. “With the feedback we’ve gathered, we can co-create a prototype to enable inclusive and successful implementation.”
SoilHive: A collaborative platform for advancing soil health
The SoilHive platform, developed by VARDA, is an open, collaborative and user-friendly tool designed to provide access to current and historical soil data from across the globe. The cutting-edge platform bridges the public and private sectors, enhancing the accessibility and usability of soil data. For African countries, SoilHIve represents a transformative opportunity to increase regional collaboration and build robust soil information services across the continent.
At the launch of the second workshop in Tanzania, engineer Juma Mdeke, director of Land Use Planning and Management at Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture, emphasized the importance of cross-sector cooperation in addressing soil health challenges.
Workshop participants developing a user journey focused on how they engage with SoilHive during the workshop in Tanzania. Photo by CIFOR-ICRAF
“We need innovative ways to promote the exchange of data, information and knowledge on soil health,” Mdeke remarked. “Public and private sectors must work together to address soil health challenges effectively.”
Through SoilHive, the project aims to harmonize soil data from diverse sources and countries, creating a unified framework that facilitates the creation of tools, workflows and digitally enabled services. Additionally, it will digitize and integrate legacy soil data.
From pilot to large-scale impact
Building on insights from stakeholders, a roadmap is being developed to scale up this initiative, with a focus on empowering national agricultural stakeholders in Kenya and Tanzania to improve soil health management.
“The project is timely,” said Anthony Kimaro, CIFOR-ICRAF’s representative in Tanzania. “It will improve data management and sharing practices, thereby enhancing soil health initiatives and addressing key agricultural challenges.”
As the SoilHive platform continues to evolve, Kenya and Tanzania are setting a regional precedent for soil health innovation. Their effort could pave the way for a resilient, food-secure Africa.
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