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Soil health matters

Home: Welcome

The
Initiative

Living Soils is an international initiative of articulation and integration between the public and private sectors, aimed at identifying and proposing concrete solutions to strengthen the soil health agenda and the transformation of agri-food systems. 

 

The initiative is led by IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture) and the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center (CMASC) of Ohio State University (USA).

 

It counts with the technical guidance of Prof. Rattan Lal, who is a Goodwill Ambassador and IICA Chair in Soil Sciences. He was also winner of the World Food Prize 2020 and co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of which he was a member.

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“…like any living thing, soil should also have right to be protected, restored and managed properly” 

PhD. Rattan Lal

World Food Prize 2020; Goodwill Ambassador and Chair in Soil Science of IICA

"This is a great platform to bring the public and private sectors together in the search for concrete solutions for the transformation of our agri-food systems, promoting soil health and ecosystem services that are essential for the maintenance of life.” 

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Manuel Otero

Director General of IICA, 2018-2026

Founding partners

About LiSA
Partners
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Key partners

In addition to the CMASC, private sector entities such as Bayer, PepsiCo and Syngenta are included, as well as technical cooperation mechanisms, including the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology (FONTAGRO), the Cooperative Program for Agrifood and Agro-Industrial Technology Development of the Southern Cone (PROCISUR) and the Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture (CIAO). Other partners are in the process of joining. 

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Living Soils
of the Americas

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Learn more about the current state of soil, land cover values and carbon stocks in the Americas.

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“Soil health is critical to world peace, stability and tranquility”
Rattan Lal

Agenda

Our
Agenda

To manage high-level knowledge to guide the Region's transformative actions towards a soil health approach and the promotion of public policies and successful actions developed by the countries to share, adjust and validate methodologies and technologies to improve ecosystems services.

Key
Goals

  • Support member countries in expanding their capacity to disseminate public policies and successful experiences. 

 

  • Act as a major regional articulator to advance the soil health agenda and implement actions in the countries. 

 

  • Strengthen the dialogue with multi-sectoral actors, including international agencies and the private sector to develop national and regional projects.

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Living Soils can only be achieved through mutual collaboration

Our Work

Living Soils, the initiative will work at three levels of governance

Its main objective is to ensure that the initiative makes an effective, strategic and technically solid contribution to advance in soil health for the benefit of the Americas.

Work
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A soil centric approach that strengthens our food systems, policies and 
agricultural practices

Resources and
Information

Check the latest events and publications of the initiative Living Soils of the Americas

Publications

Events

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