In his Nobel Prize acceptance lecture, economist Theodore Schultz (1979) remarked, “Most of the world’s poor people earn their living from agriculture, so if we knew the economics of agriculture, we would know much of the economics of being poor”. If agriculture, then, largely determines the fate of the world’s poor, soil health has a fundamental role to play, given its impact on agriculture. In this paper, we lay out the deep relationships between soil health, agriculture, and poverty, and their implications for policy making. We focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG 1): No Poverty (United Nations, n.d.- a), which seeks to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. Extreme poverty is defined as surviving on less than $2.15 per person per day, at 2017 prices. We use the Intergovernmental Technical Panel’s definition of soil health: “. . . the ability of the soil to sustain the productivity, diversity, and environmental services of terrestrial ecosystem” (FAO, 2020).

Healthy soil is critical for ecosystem restoration, climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, water cycling, farmer livelihoods, and food and nutrition security. Despite its importance, soil health has often been overlooked, but momentum is growing as evidenced by recent high-level initiatives such as the Nairobi Declaration as part of the Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Action Plan and the European Union Soil Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration was launched on 5 June 2021 to galvanise local, national and global action to restore degraded ecosystems. In the same year, the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) initiated a call for coalitions of action to champion integrated, systemic approaches to transform food systems. The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) was launched to bring soil health into focus with participation across sectors and scales to ultimately raise awareness about this critical ecosystem that we depend on, but which is being degraded at unprecedented rates. Since 2021, CA4SH has grown to include nearly 200 members (as of January 2025) representing the public and private sectors, research institutions, non-governmental organisations, farmer organisations and cooperatives, individuals, youth-led organisations, and indigenous organisations to mention some. The initiative has also had a strong focus on gender equity and social inclusion (GESI) in soil and landscape restoration. The Coalition promotes soil as a unifier across a diverse set of stakeholders, building partnerships to overcome critical economic, technical and institutional barriers to the adoption and scaling of healthy soil practices. Furthermore, CA4SH facilitates evidence-based policy and practice action for the scaling of restoration practices that improve soil health. The Private Sector Guiding Group, launched as part of the UNFSS, developed a call to action to support increased investments in healthy soil, and continues to support the actions of the Coalition. Its four working groups focus on communication, soil health monitoring and implementation, policy, and financial investment. In the first three years since its launch, the Coalition has engaged in multinational dialogues and contributed to the adoption of soil health in the outcomes from the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) through the Koronivia joint work on agriculture (now the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration), the UNFCCC COP28 UAE Declaration on Food Systems and Agriculture, the UNCCD COP16 Riyadh Action Agenda and also launched the Soil Health Resolution. Leveraging on the enabling policy environment, the Coalition catalyses public and private sector action with outcomes for economic returns and growth, productivity and rural livelihoods, climate and nature. The positioning of the Coalition in the current global environmental transition is pivotal to drive the multifaceted benefits that soil health improvement offers to food systems transformation and global adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.

2024 was a big year for soil health and for the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH). We engaged global stakeholders in united advocacy to scale soil health through our priority areas of action, including science, policy, finance, youth engagement, and implementation on the ground. Scaling soil health can not happen in a vacuum; it requires the diverse perspectives, expertise, experience, and networks of the global community to come together. CA4SH is uniquely positioned to bring these voices together, offering a community and a meeting place for these partnerships to grow and bloom, and in 2024, we did just that in the name of healthy soil.

The CA4SH Monitoring, Research and Implementation have compiled expert advice and considerations for those looking to monitor soil health.

The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) is a multi stakeholder partnership committed to scaling soil health, globally. CA4SH ’s membership base comprises stakeholders from member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organisations, multilateral organisations, and NGOs.

To leverage the wealth of knowledge and experiences from across our partners in addressing key challenges currently constraining farmers to implement healthy soil practices, CA4SH held a three-part virtual Webinar Series in early 2024. The 2024 Webinar Series was held over three sessions under the topics of bringing soil health into policy, science & knowledge for improving and monitoring soil health, and financing healthy soil practices. The objectives were to explore soil-related themes and share experiences with a focus on tailoring and scaling successful methodologies.

This brief summarizes the sessions, and coallates lessons learned, calls to action, and opportunities for scaling these approaches to align action on soil ahead of the 2024 Rio Conventions.

The new paper is a conceptual framework relating to fertilizer, crop productivity, and soil health. It features a number of key recommendations, generated from scientific information, which address soil health, climate change, farmer incentives, soil health investments, localization, and not only fertilizers but also auxiliary interventions.