Alexander Erlewein (GIZ)

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Soil rehabilitation for food security:
a priority for German development cooperation
03.11.2018
Alexander Erlewein
German International Cooperation (GIZ)
Sector project on soil protection, desertification and sustainable land management

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BMZ´s "One World - No Hunger Initiative"
03.11.2018
• Graph?

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BMZ´s "One World - No Hunger Initiative"
03.11.2018
Why soils?
 Soil degradation is an
increasing problem
 Key concern for food
security
 Multiple benefits of soil
protection
Source: FAO

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Global Programme on Soil Protection and
Rehabilitation for Food Security
03.11.2018
What? Goals
• Rehabilitate 340.000 ha
of degraded soils
• Increase yields by 30%
• Include soil
conservation in the
political agendas of
partner countries

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Global Programme on Soil Protection and
Rehabilitation for Food Security
03.11.2018

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Global Programme on Soil Protection and
Rehabilitation for Food Security
03.11.2018
How?
• Training farmers in soil
conservation techniques
• Strengthening extension and
advisory services
• Supporting local and national
authorities to improve frameworks
for soil protection

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Major challenge: scaling up soil protection
03.11.2018
• Making progress on SDGs on food security (SDG 2) and land
rehabilitation (SDG 15) requires massive upscaling of soil protection
• Many best practices are known, but not widely replicated
 What are the socio-economic barriers for upscaling soil protection?
 What are elements of an enabling environment that allows for scaling
up soil protection?

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Barriers and solution approaches for upscaling
sustainable soil management (1)
03.11.2018
• No immediate economic return
 Clearly demonstrate long-term benefits of SSM: increased yields
and resilience
 Additional incentives: subsidies, payment for ecosystem services
• Inefficiency of extension services
• Focus on short-term productivity. Neglect soil/resource management
• Biased towards rural elites
 Integrate soil/resource management in extension curricula
 Ensure access by marginalized groups. Model farmers among the
poor

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Barriers and solution approaches for upscaling
sustainable soil management (2)
03.11.2018
• Lack of tenure security
 Recognition of customary and informal tenure rights
 Mechanisms to protect legitimate tenure rights (dispute resolution)
• Limited access to land for women and youth
 E.g. special land leasing arrangements

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Conclusions
03.11.2018
• Soil protection works: for food security, environment and climate
• But: it only works at a large scale if there is a framework of enabling
policies and incentives (incl. effective and accesible extension
services, tenure security, access to finance i.a.)
 Need for policy reform!
 How to convince policy-makers to pay attention to soils?

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Conclusions
03.11.2018

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Conclusions
03.11.2018

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Thank you
03.11.2018