Soil health management in sub-Saharan Africa requires a landscape approach

Soil health is the capacity of soil to support plants, animals and humans and is central to agricultural livelihoods, food production and other environmental services. Widespread soil degradation and increasing demands from agricultural land have led to concerted research and action to reverse soil degradation and improve soil health. The common farm-level approach to soil health management and improvement can be effective and there are many documented cases of positive impact. However, in areas dominated by small farms, such as much of sub-Saharan Africa, soil health is also influenced by interactions between different farms and between agricultural and non-agricultural parts of the landscape. Hence, we propose that in these conditions a landscape approach to soil health management is appropriate. Five further propositions concern the way context, co-creation, monitoring, facilitation, and investment in soil health are different at landscape and farm levels and the consequences of these. A seventh proposition is a recommendation for updating available tools and frameworks to support landscape approaches to soil health. These propositions are hypotheses that can be confirmed, refuted or modified through research. Research in diverse contexts will generate the insights needed to refine the propositions and allow them to be used in place-based action on soil health. Together, the propositions point to a change in the common ways in which soil health is conceptualized, action on soil health is organized and research supports the effort.