Map soil nutrients to tackle imbalances worldwide

"A country-driven global initiative has been launched to map the national status of soil nutrients and nutrient budgets. The product of this initiative, known as the GSNmap, will be available by the end of this year. Drawn up by the Global Soil Partnership of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (see go.nature.com/3abkjq2), it will help stakeholders to locate soil-nutrient data and improve nutrient availability, and therefore the resilience and sustainability of food production.

Amid the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016–25), access to food is under threat from factors that include climate change and the COVID 19 pandemic (see, for example, J. von Braun et al. Nature 597, 28–30; 2021). Armed conflict is further disrupting global food-supply chains and has increased fertilizer prices. Sustainable management of soil nutrients — such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium — is key to addressing these problems (L. Qiao et al. Nature Clim. Change 12, 574–580; 2022).

The GSNmap will markedly improve the administration of national soil databases. More than 120 countries are already developing data products based on the GSNmap that focus on optimizing soil-nutrient conditions and crop productivity to help farmers, researchers, the private sector and policymakers.” [1]

1. Map soil nutrients to tackle imbalances worldwide. Ronald Vargas, Nature 609, 245 (2022)