Summary

Soil health and soil water are major issues of concern that influence agriculture productivity in Africa. They directly impact all plant growth and hence food security, environmental quality, and overall human and livestock health. Soil water and soil health are interrelated. Healthy soil supports better water absorption and water retention and release characteristics. Similarly, soil health management increases organic matter and aggregate formation and stability, which influences soil water relations. One essential way of safeguarding soil health is through soil and water conservation. Soil and water conservation is a traditional practice in agriculture for controlling soil erosion, preserving or increasing soil water, enabling nutrient cycling, soil structure maintenance, and microbial activity. There are many options for soil and water conservation practices in the literature which can fit different scenarios in Africa. A careful selection of the appropriate and sustainable practices is needed which will also promote soil health on the continent. Since the “appropriateness” of different options is so location and resource-specific, the direct involvement of smallholder farmers (SHF) in the selection process is essential. The Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan (AFSH-AP) and the Soil Initiative for Africa (SIA) framework have highlighted the need for actions to optimize soil health and water management in Africa to improve agricultural productivity and environmental quality. The objective of this chapter of the companion document is to outline strategies for implementing appropriate soil health and water management in Africa. It is important to note that inadequate implementation of soil conservation will cause soil degradation and exacerbate poor soil health. Therefore, the document not only outlines strategies to implement soil health and water management at farm and landscape levels but also how to scale successful interventions throughout Africa to tame the growing soil degradation on the continent. Presently, it is believed that more than 65% of African is degraded. The degradation state is further compounded by a lack of detailed information on the coverage and impacts of soil conservation on the continent. This document outlines the steps needed to improve innovative and successful soil conservation efforts at farm and landscape levels (deep scaling), expanding the geographic coverage of successful conservation interventions (scaling out or horizontal scaling) as well as to involve many stakeholders to improve the enabling environment for the implementation of soil conservation (scaling up or vertical scaling) in Africa. It also includes a four-phased plan to develop national and regional soil health strategies and development of soil health dashboard to track impacts of the strategies on soil health. The implementation plan incorporates activities at the local, national, regional and continental levels. The monitoring plan is envisaged to align with the framework set by the SIA Action Plan and the CAADP monitoring system.