Peru together with Canada, Colombia and El Salvador will protect the soil together with IICA

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) announced the adhesion of Canada, Colombia, El Salvador and Peru to the Living Soils of the Americas restoration initiative.

The project promoted by IICA and the Ohio State University Carbon Management and Sequestration Center (C-MASC), led by scientist Rattan Lal, links science, public policy, the private sector and restoration work of soils, whose degradation threatens the position of Latin America and the Caribbean as guarantors of global food security.

“Canada looks forward to sharing our experiences and learning from our partners in North and South America through this initiative in order to advance the soil health agenda and transform the region’s food systems to be more consistent and more sustainable.” Canadian Deputy Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Gilles Saindon said in a statement.

The program seeks to improve management approaches and link the different members to help stop processes of land degradation and agriculture that deplete the organic matter of the soil, a fundamental natural resource for life.

According to IICA data, approximately 40% of the soils in Latin America and the Caribbean show some type of degradation.

The Living Soils of the Americas also works on the need to move towards land management practices and incentives to transform agricultural systems into ecosystems that accumulate more carbon in the soil, implementing management methods and developing public policies and regulations with the objective to recover the health and quality of the soil.

“It is a great honor to make the results of our public policies available to the entire Hemisphere through this initiative in order to advance this agenda and transform the region’s food systems towards an even more sustainable model,” said the vice minister. of Agricultural Affairs of Colombia, Juan Gonzalo Botero.

The initiative also seeks to strengthen the position of Latin America and the Caribbean as one of the main global food producing and exporting regions, a condition that requires improving soil quality, which is also essential to increase food and nutritional security in the world. world.

For the authorities, this type of proposal for the conservation and protection of the soil, which is rich in nutrients, helps to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change.