Strengthening Soil Health Monitoring in Laos: A Pathway to Sustainable Food Security

– Soil is involved in 13 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
– In Laos, there are worrying signs of widespread soil degradation threatening national food security.
– Yet, there is no systematic monitoring of soil health, making it impossible for concerned governmental institutions to prioritize action.
– Soil health is not the same as soil fertility. The heavy use of fertilisers can cause a soil to be rich in Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K) but not sustain agricultural production.
– Soil fauna is involved in most of soil functions e.g. nutrient cycling, soil structure maintenance, carbon transformations, soil-born pest population regulation… There is a need to go beyond soil properties assessment to assess soil biological functioning
– Low-cost and easy-to-use toolkits allowing to assess soil health exist and have been successfully tested in Laos. They should be integrated into a national framework for the monitoring of soil health.
– Life comes from the soil, let’s monitor soil health to better protect it!