SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013
SOIL DEGRADATION, FOOD SECURITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
EMMANUEL OLADIPO
DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
Keynote Address
A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself (Franklin Roosevelt, 32 nd
President of the Unites States)


Soil is part of the natural environment, which sustains agriculture and food production. It is the interface between earth, air and water and hosts most of the biosphere, and
 provides ecosystem services critical for life:
 acts as a water filter and a growing medium;
 provides habitat for billions of organisms, contributing to biodiversity; and
 supplies most of the antibiotics used to fight diseases.

Humans use soil as a holding facility for solid waste, filter for wastewater, and foundation for our cities and towns.
Interaction between the various components of the planet’s environmental/climate system (IPCC, 2007)
Interaction between the various components of the planet’s environmental system (IPCC, 2007)

Provision of Ecosystems Services by Soils
Source: Rojas, R. V. (2012): How to Achieve a “Land
Degradation Neutral World”

Source: Rojas, R. V. (2012): How to Achieve a “Land
Degradation Neutral World”

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013
Some Basic Facts – Did You Know:
• there are more living individual organisms in a tablespoon of soil than there are people on the earth?
• almost all of the antibiotics we take to help us fight infections were obtained from soil microorganisms?
• agriculture is the only essential industry on earth?
• over 90% of the world’s food comes from soil?
• soil is a nonrenewable natural resource?
• the best china dishes are made from soil?
• about 70% of the weight of a text book or glossy paged magazine is soil?
• putting clay on your face in the form of a "mud mask" is done to cleanse the pores in the skin?

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013

Imperative for Soil Maintenance:
Soils, as the fundamental foundation of our food security, global economy and environmental quality, are, generally speaking, fragile.
 Soil quality (the capacity of a soil to function within land use and ecosystem boundaries, to sustain biological productivity maintain environmental quality and promote plant, animal and human health) is largely governed by soil organic matter content – a dynamic pool that responds effectively to changes in soil management,
 When used inappropriately, agricultural practices can cause serious soil losses.
 Excessive tillage, for example, often leads to unintended consequences of water, wind and tillage erosion.
 If the degradation of agricultural soils continues unchecked we may face serious problems in feeding a growing population.

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013

Imperative for Soil Maintenance:
With our rapidly expanding population and the pressure on the finite amount of land available for agricultural production, the protection of our soils is not only necessary, but also imperative for our survival and those of our natural resources.
 Maintaining soil quality and soil health can reduce problems of land degradation, decreasing soil fertility and rapidly declining production levels that are occurring in many parts of Nigeria with inappropriate farming practices.
 As Prof. Rattan Lal often emphasized "Soil, and specifically sound soil management, is essential in our continued quest to increase the production of food, feed, fiber, and fuel while maintaining and improving the environment, and mitigating the effects of climate change. Being the essence of all terrestrial life and ecosystem services, we cannot take the soils for granted. Soil is the basis of survival for present and future generations."

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013







Are we maintaining the soil?
Acknowledged for its key role in ensuring food security and ecosystems services. Yet fragile resource because of its nature (nonrenewable on human time frame).
Soil resources are limited and need to be preserved for feeding the growing population of the world by 2050.
The sad story is that the limited resource is under increasing pressure.
Human-induced soil degradation is now a global problem, but estimates remain largely unreliable.
Current Facts and Statistics indicate that land degradation is serious in Africa (available at www.thenigerianvoice.com/.../currentdynamics-of-land-degr . :
77 % of Africa is affected by erosion, with serious erosion areas noted for Nigeria among others
Nearly 90 % of rangelands and 80 % of farmlands in the area of West
African Sahel, Sudan, northeast Ethiopia are seriously affected by land degradation – including soil erosion, deforestation and several forms of land degradation.

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013
Are we maintaining the soil?
 More than 65 % of Africa's population is affected by the consequences of land degradation.
 Nearly 3.3 % of agricultural GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa is lost annual because of soil and nutrient loss.
 Recent estimates by the UNCCD (2011) indicates that:
 About 24 billion tons of fertile soil are lost every year,
 More than 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of crop land are degraded or lost to water and wind erosion of topsoil,
 300m hectares has been so severely degraded it cannot produce food,
 Arable land loss is estimated at 30 to 35 times the historical rate.
 Land degradation directly affects 1.5 billion people globally.
 In the drylands, due to drought and desertification, 12 million hectares of land are transformed into new human-made deserts each year (That is an area with the potential to produce 20 million tons of grain every
year).

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013
Food security can be defined as “[the condition] when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food
[to meet] their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. It thus encompasses the
their use of food, as well as the stability of all three components. This definition includes the qualitative dimensions of safety and nutrition, linking food security to people’s energy, protein and nutrient needs for life, activity, pregnancy and growth.7 It also points to a horizon beyond food security, the potential for a full and active life (UNDP AFRICA
HUMAN DEVREPT 2012)

Conceptual Framework for Food Security (after Hildrink, H., et al.,
2012)
 The focus for availability is on agricultural production as a combination of land and agricultural productivity.

Access dimension includes food prices, and income and food distribution.

Utilisation dimension concerns impacts from inadequate use of food, in particular the prevalence of child malnutrition, and its interaction with other risks such as limited access to safe drinking water.

FOOD INSECURITY – WITHER NIGERIA?
 Food insecurity rose from about 18% in 1986 to about 41% in
2004, with an estimated population of 150 million, this implies that over 61 million Nigerians are food insecure, that is are either hungry, under nourished, or starving. This is not surprising given that about 52% of the population live under the poverty line (Abu, 2012).
 With increase in the level of poverty to about 69% (National
Bureau of Statistics , 2011), the level of food insecurity has definitely increased from the already high value of 41% of
2004
 Limited research that took into consideration the series of indicators listed in the above Table.
 Main environmental factors of interest in this paper are soil degradation and climate change.

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013




SOIL DEGRADATION AND FOOD INSECURITY
Food insecurity is caused by the combination of different factors. One of them greatly affecting the availability and stability pillars of food security is food production. The foundation of food production is a healthy land system
(healthy soils).
The severity and extent of land degradation has a direct impact on the food insecurity and poverty status in the different regions .
Nutrient depletion in soils adversely affects soil quality and reduces crop yield and consequently poses a potential threat to global food security and agricultural sustainability and terrestrial ecosystems.
Significantly soil depletion is creating less vigorous growth resulting in lower yields but it also creates lower rates of photosynthesis which results in reduced carbon dioxide to oxygen conversation.

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013
SOIL DEGRADATION AND FOOD INSECURITY
 Nutrient depletion reduces our vegetations ability to reduce
CO2 in our atmosphere which is part of the carbon sequestration we need to deal with the climate crisis.
 Human-induced nutrient depletion has become a serious problem for the balance in our eco systems globally.
 Basically we have been mining nutrients from our soil and in general we have not been replacing all the nutritional resources that planet need to thrive in the process.
 Soil fertility problems associated with human-induced nutrient depletion are widespread in Nigeria, with consequences on national food security

CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES RISKS
Averaged globally, the surface has warmed by about 0.8
o C since 1850 – warming largely concentrated in two periods (1910 to around 1940 and from around 1975 to around 2000) – warming not geographically uniform. Each decade since the 1970s has been clearly warmer than the one immediately preceding it. The decade 2000-2009 was, globally, around 0.15
o C warmer than the decade 1990-1999 see figure).

CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES RISKS:
Climate change will bring greater unpredictability to weather patterns in
Nigeria. Future trends of climatic elements relevant to food production in the region as modelled by Karmalkar, et al. (2010) and Abiodun et al. (2011) are captured in the following Table, which gives a summary of climatic trends and future scenarios for the country.
Period Temperature Rainfall Extreme Events
Historical
(1960 – 2006)
2060s
(relative to current climate)
2090s
(relative to current climate)
Temperature increased by 0.8°C between
1960 and 2006, an average rate of 0.18°C per decade. More hot nights, fewer cold nights.








+1.1 to 2.5
0 C (warming generally
higher in northern Nigeria)
18 – 49% increase in hot days (on the
lower side in northern Nigeria)
32 – 60% increase in hot nights (on
the lower side in northern Nigeria) decrease in the frequency of cold days and nights
+1.4 – 4.6
0 C (warming generally
higher in northern Nigeria)
23 – 73% increase in hot days (on the
lower side in northern Nigeria)
37 – 74% increase in hot nights(on the
lower side in northern Nigeria) no decrease in the frequency of cold days and nights


Highly variable from year to year, season to season, decade to decade with periods of wet years alternating with period of dry years. Statistically decreasing trend of
3.5 mm per month (1.8%) per decade
Wide range of changes with an overall tendency towards decrease (June to
August)
-15 - +23% in July to September
-12 - +32% in June to August
No sufficient daily data to identify statistically significant trends in daily rainfall extremes.
Heavy events tend towards increases, particularly in June to
August with a general increase in the number of days of rain, days with extreme rainfall and flooding, except in the extreme northeastern part
Heavy events tend towards further increases, particularly in June to
August with a general increase in the number of days of rain, days with extreme rainfall and flooding, except in the extreme northeastern part. Maximum 1-day and maximum 5-day rainfalls tend to increase slightly, changing by -1 to
+20mm and by -6 to +30mm respectively.

CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES RISKS

CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES RISKS

CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES RISKS

Source: Stern Review, 2008

Almost 35% of all greenhouse gases (GHG) released into the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities since 1850 are linked to land use changes. Crop, grazing, and forest lands, as well as wetlands all have the potential to contribute to or, through sound management strategies, mitigate GHG emissions through soil carbon sequestration, while also enhancing ecosystem services. But soil degradation in the face of changing climate will lead to a vicious cycle of land degradation, biodiversity loss and increased climatic events that will further reduce food production and enhance food insecurity.
Source: Safriel, U. 2011

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013


Nigeria, like any of the Sub-Saharan African countries, will have to take into account the following factors to ensure its future food security:
 a healthy and educated population, essential to be able to capitalise to demographic dividend through higher labour productivity;
 inclusive growth to let progress at macro level trickle down to poorer population segments;
 modernisation of agriculture including adequate infrastructure and production conditions;
 address competing claims, for energy, water and irrigation;
 institutional settings that provide stable incomes and incentives to invest in agriculture;
 environmental sustainability and ways to mitigate and cope with biodiversity loss and climate variability. In particular the country must pursue a climatesmart and climate-resilient agriculture that will include sustainable use of its soil resources; and
 political stability and conflict resolution.
These are necessary conditions , but they may be not sufficient, for achieving food security – national discourse critical – conference focus on the soil aspect

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013





FUTURE RESEARCH PRIORITIES
In line with the global interest that has been advocated by many Soil Science
Societies/Associations (e.g. Soil Science Society of America, the Soil Science
Society of Nigeria may identify with the following soil grand challenges for future research areas:
Climate Change. Determine the mechanisms controlling greenhouse gas emissions from organic soils, particularly tundra and permafrost soils, and identify methods to control these emissions.
Food and Energy Security. Elucidate site-specific soil management solutions that maximize soil agroeosystem services, minimize soil disturbance, and concurrently increase soil carbon reserves while reducing the nutrient, water, and pesticide inputs.
Waste Treatment and Water Quality. Manage the soil-based re-use of waste— industrial and stormwaters – in rural and urban environments to maximize water infiltration and storage and minimize damage to aquatic systems and reduce dependence on groundwater.
Human and Ecosystem Health. Harness the microbial diversity of soil to develop new pharmaceuticals, deactivate pathogens in waste material and contaminated water, and prevent impairment of watersheds.

SSSN ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE, LAFIA MARCH 12 2013






BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abu, O., 2012: Food Security in Nigeria and South Africa: Policies and Challenges.
Hum Ecol, 38(1): 31-35 (2012)
Hilderink, H., et al., 2012: Food security in sub-Saharan Africa: An exploratory study.
PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Karmalkar, A., McSweeney, C., New, M and Lizcano, G., 2010: The UNDP Climate
Change Country Profiles: Nigeria. Available at http://country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk
.
Rojas, R.V., 2012. How to achieve a land degradation neutral world. FAO/Global Soil
Partnership
Safriel, U. 2011. Land degradation and climate change – turning vicious to a virtuous cycle. Presented at the UNFCCC- COP 17 Durban, South Africa.
Scherr, S. J., 1999: Soil Degradation: A threat to developing-country food security by
2020. Food, Agriculture and the Environment Discussion Paper 27.Available online at: http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/go/collection/iaastd-international-assessmentof-agricultural-science-andtechnology- for-development.