Soil Cries, We Cry: An Overview into Soil Degradation

# Save land Save lives #Dont Spoil the Soil

Soil degradation is of great importance as it impacts the agricultural industry, which in turn affects its ability to achieve sustainable development. Soil degradation is the decline in soil quality caused by a variety of reasons such as erosion, nutrient depletion, pollution, and overuse. Soil conservation is essential for sustainable agriculture development, such as crop rotation, cover cropping, reduced tillage, and organic amendments. This can improve productivity, reduce costs, and promote environmental sustainability.

The agriculture industry is susceptible to soil degradation due to biodiversity loss: when soil organisms essential to soil health are lost, further soil degradation is going to follow. This has adverse effects leading to habitat loss, reduced fertility, and changes in soil structure, which can affect water-holding capacity and nutrient availability.

Jamaica has a part to play as Jamaica's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement intends to reduce GHG emissions by 2030. To that end, Jamaica has designated priority areas, in forests and agriculture, to improve forest cover while decreasing deforestation and forest degradation. Jamaica also aims to enhance agricultural methods in order to minimize emissions and increase carbon sequestration.

To tackle soil degradation and achieve strong sustainability in the future, the agriculture industry must adopt Systems Thinking. This involves identifying the stakeholders such as farmers, the government, regulatory bodies and researchers to take a seat at the decision-making table. The agriculture industry should implement changes to reduce soil degradation, using strategies such as incentivizing conservation practices, developing new sustainable farming technologies, promoting sustainable land use policies and monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of those changes.