The amount of fertile soil lost worldwide every year recently equalled around a third of the area of Germany, and it continues to grow. This has severe consequences for both the global food supply and the climate. The arid regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America are the hardest hit. Here, the people who live from agriculture suffer the most, as their fields provide the food they need to survive. In addition, fertile soils are the second largest carbon reservoir after the world's oceans, which makes them indispensable for climate protection. This is why concepts that utilise the soil in an ecological way are needed.
As part of the ONEWORLD – No Hunger Initiative, the WOCAT Consortium Partner GIZ implemented the ProSoil programme. It aims to help smallholder farmers learn how to apply climate-friendly, agroecological methods to protect their land from erosion and restore and maintain soil fertility. To this end, WOCAT has supported the documentation and exchange of best practices in the seven programme countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Madagascar, and Tunisia.
