Atlas drawn up by international experts aims to expand understanding
of soil and how Africa can manage it sustainably
Bernard Appiah for SciDev, part of the Guardian development network
Thursday 23 May 2013
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/may/23/africa-soil-diversity-mapped
----
A team of international experts has drawn up the Soil Atlas of Africa
– the first such book mapping this key natural resource – to help
farmers, land managers and policymakers understand the diversity and
importance of soil, and the need to manage it through sustainable use.
They say that despite soil's importance, most people in Africa lack
knowledge about it, partly because information tends to be confined to
academic publications read only by scientists.
"There was an existing database on soil that had not been updated by
soil science experts from Africa, so we asked them to provide us with
new information, which we translated into a form understandable to key
stakeholders," said Arwyn Jones, a member of the soil team at the land
resource management unit of the European commission's joint research
centre, which produced the atlas.
The project began four years ago, and involved experts from the
European commission, the African Union (AU) and the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation. The atlas was released at the meeting of the
AU and EU commissions in Addis Ababa last month.
Robert Zougmoré, regional programme manager for west Africa at the
Cgiar research programme on climate change, agriculture and food
security, says the atlas displays the diversity of African soil for
both agricultural and non-agricultural purposes.
"We documented all the different types of soils and mapped them so
that our decision-makers at national and regional levels can use the
maps to decide where to invest in terms of food production and
urbanisation," he says. "Using the atlas, we can identify regions such
as central Africa, some parts of west Africa, and southern Africa
where a type of fertile soil called vertisol – which maximises crop
yields – can be found in greater quantities."
Zougmoré tells SciDev.Net that most African countries have national
soil bureaus that are inadequately resourced, making it difficult to
generate new soil information. He is now calling for more support from
African governments.
Peter Okoth, a Nairobi-based natural resources consultant, says:
"Regional users [of the atlas] have the opportunity to know about
trends, problem hotspots and patterns of soil distribution". But he
cautions that unless users are properly trained, they may find using
the atlas challenging.
Pedro Sanchez, project director of the Africa Soil Information Service
(Afsis), and a soil expert at the US-based Earth Institute at Columbia
University, welcomes the atlas as an "important tool". But he points
out that because the atlas is not interactive, users may find it
difficult to determine relationships between soil properties and their
impacts.
"We are also working on another interactive, web-accessible digital
soil map that covers all the non-desert areas of Sub-Saharan Africa,"
says Sanchez, adding that Afsis hopes to complete this project by the
end of the year.
• Download the Soil Atlas of Africa (part one, part two, part three).
The atlas is also available as a printed copy from the EU's
publication office.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2013
Registered in England and Wales No. 908396 Registered office: PO Box
68164, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1P 2AP
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of soil and how Africa can manage it sustainably
Bernard Appiah for SciDev, part of the Guardian development network
Thursday 23 May 2013
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/may/23/africa-soil-diversity-mapped
----
A team of international experts has drawn up the Soil Atlas of Africa
– the first such book mapping this key natural resource – to help
farmers, land managers and policymakers understand the diversity and
importance of soil, and the need to manage it through sustainable use.
They say that despite soil's importance, most people in Africa lack
knowledge about it, partly because information tends to be confined to
academic publications read only by scientists.
"There was an existing database on soil that had not been updated by
soil science experts from Africa, so we asked them to provide us with
new information, which we translated into a form understandable to key
stakeholders," said Arwyn Jones, a member of the soil team at the land
resource management unit of the European commission's joint research
centre, which produced the atlas.
The project began four years ago, and involved experts from the
European commission, the African Union (AU) and the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation. The atlas was released at the meeting of the
AU and EU commissions in Addis Ababa last month.
Robert Zougmoré, regional programme manager for west Africa at the
Cgiar research programme on climate change, agriculture and food
security, says the atlas displays the diversity of African soil for
both agricultural and non-agricultural purposes.
"We documented all the different types of soils and mapped them so
that our decision-makers at national and regional levels can use the
maps to decide where to invest in terms of food production and
urbanisation," he says. "Using the atlas, we can identify regions such
as central Africa, some parts of west Africa, and southern Africa
where a type of fertile soil called vertisol – which maximises crop
yields – can be found in greater quantities."
Zougmoré tells SciDev.Net that most African countries have national
soil bureaus that are inadequately resourced, making it difficult to
generate new soil information. He is now calling for more support from
African governments.
Peter Okoth, a Nairobi-based natural resources consultant, says:
"Regional users [of the atlas] have the opportunity to know about
trends, problem hotspots and patterns of soil distribution". But he
cautions that unless users are properly trained, they may find using
the atlas challenging.
Pedro Sanchez, project director of the Africa Soil Information Service
(Afsis), and a soil expert at the US-based Earth Institute at Columbia
University, welcomes the atlas as an "important tool". But he points
out that because the atlas is not interactive, users may find it
difficult to determine relationships between soil properties and their
impacts.
"We are also working on another interactive, web-accessible digital
soil map that covers all the non-desert areas of Sub-Saharan Africa,"
says Sanchez, adding that Afsis hopes to complete this project by the
end of the year.
• Download the Soil Atlas of Africa (part one, part two, part three).
The atlas is also available as a printed copy from the EU's
publication office.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2013
Registered in England and Wales No. 908396 Registered office: PO Box
68164, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1P 2AP
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
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