CANCELLED: Tackling Soil Health Problems in Africa South of the Sahara

The policy seminar scheduled for Tuesday, July 22, from 12:15 pm to 1:45 pm at IFPRI has been cancelled. We regret the inconvenience.

Human health and soil health are related. Humans get nutrition from food; food gets nutrition from the soil. This linkage is critically important for food security and for the global food system. In much of Africa south of the Sahara, farmers are harvesting more nutrients from the soil than they are putting in. Both scientists and farmers lack information about soil types and missing soil nutrients.

Ethiopia is leading the way in tackling this pressing problem. Combining a variety of technologies with a rich collection of soil samples, soil specialists in Ethiopia are creating a digital soil map of the country. With the new soil map, the specialists will have the information needed to create fertilizer blends that target missing nutrients in specific locations and that are best suited for particular crops.

Join us as Professor Tekalign Mamo, the State Minister of Agriculture, and a panel of experts share Ethiopia’s experiences and discuss the relevance of this program for other countries in Africa south of the Sahara.