An open Access soil information system

24 November 2021. A virtual dialogue was organized by the Soils4Africa project [https://www.soils4africa-h2020.eu ] in close collaboration with FARA. The Soils4Africa project, aims to provide an open-access soil information system (SIS) with a set of key indicators and underpinning data, accompanied with a methodology for repeated soil monitoring across the continent. 

It was a side event to the 17th Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program – Partnership Platform (CAADP-PP). 

This webinar provided an opportunity to engage with high-level stakeholders from Europe and Africa and advance the dialogue on strategies to embed the SIS into the knowledge framework for the sustainable intensification of African agriculture, and the delivery of CAADP goals. It also facilitated stakeholders’ understanding of the process, methodology, and relative utility of the SIS. The event was an opportunity to seek the endorsement of other continental organization for continuous development and use of the SIS beyond the life of the Soils4Africa project.

• The SIS will become part of the knowledge and information system of the AU-EU research and innovation partnership on food and nutrition security, and sustainable agriculture, and will be hosted by an African institution. It is the ambition of the project to provide a system beyond the state-of-the-art methods currently employed in the agricultural sector in Africa. 
• The envisaged system will support the generation and application of agriculture innovations and ultimately help to boost sustainable intensification. 
• The Soils4Africa consortium consists of 17 organizations in Africa and Europe working together and funded under the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union.

See: Concept Note for the Webinar. The draft program for the session is contained in the Concept Note. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dF1AALCA2vrbO1Ju4HJ9SQoCjWp2tKUg/view?usp=sharing