2023-11-04 12:00:18
In its report on the global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services (2019), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Ipbes) recalls that nature is essential to human existence and good health. quality of life. It is therefore necessary to develop nature-based solutions, of which soil restoration and protection are part.
Good soil health is decisive for many of the environmental services on which we depend: agricultural fertility and productivity, CO2 storage or water retention and filtration. However, their widespread state of degradation – 60% of European soils are degraded, or even very degraded –, associated with the intensification of climatic stresses (droughts, floods), endangers our food sovereignty.
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We must adapt by allowing soils to fully perform their functions and massively deploy a triptych: diagnosis, rehabilitation and conservation of soil health.
We must immediately look beneath our feet!
The initiative of the deputy (Modem) of Loiret Richard Ramos, who proposes the implementation of a soil health diagnosis for each sale of an agricultural plot, like the energy performance diagnosis (EPD) during a land transaction, is an idea that could be taken up within the framework of the pact and orientation law and agricultural future (Too much).
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Indeed, measuring soil health is an opportunity to accelerate the implementation of a value-creating environmental transition. The soil is the primary asset of each farm, it is the primary working tool of each farmer. Diagnosis is the first step in evaluating the environmental functions they carry, vital functions which are all services that farmers provide to society and which must be valued.
Consensus indicators
At a time when, legitimately, stakeholders in the agricultural world are calling for fair remuneration for the missions carried out by the sectors in the territories, the development of carbon credits in agriculture and regenerative or agroecological agriculture sectors are proof that these services can create new income for the agricultural world.
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Beyond the interest for farmers, measuring soil health will make it possible to define the real value of each soil and this evaluation will also benefit businesses, local authorities, state agencies and services, and owners. , to banks…
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