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Soil First: Advancing Food System Transformation from the Ground Up
This paper is the outcome of the “Partners for Change – SOILutions for a Food Secure, Resilient, and Sustainable Future” (short SOILutions) conference held in Berlin, Germany, from 20th to 22nd May 2025. It is based on the experience and lessons learned from over a decade of on-the-ground implementation through a major investment in soil protection and rehabilitation. Since 2015, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) together with the European Union (EU) and the Gates Foundation (GF) have provided over EUR 240 million through the programme “Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security” (short ProSoil) This programme has been successfully implemented in several African countries and India using a multipartnership approach. To date, nearly 1 million hectares of agricultural land have been protected and rehabilitated, achieving an average yield increase of 44 per cent and providing more food and better nutrition for 2.6 million people in seven countries.