Soil quality and food security

From satellites observing Earth, to roots and the microbes that surround them: Today we are looking at soil and how our food security depends on its health.

Climate Change and Environment

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Insights and ideas

Soil is so much more than the dirt beneath our feet. It’s a fragile resource which is degraded in many parts of the world. And the rapidly growing global population’s demand for food, fibre and soil-derived materials is ramping up the pressure, raising urgent questions.

This episode seeks to find answers. How can we feed people, while rethinking our dependence on chemical fertilisers? Can we process waste water in a way that can benefit farmers and boost crop yields? And what can the structure of a plant’s roots tell us about what is going on underground? Can that knowledge lead to a reduction in the need for nitrogen-based fertilisers? How can remote sensing, and Earth observation data, help us to improve our use of natural resources to improve food security?

Our ‘crop’ of guests, all of whom have been funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, are here to help us understand how waste, fertiliser, soil protection and remote monitoring all interconnect:

A researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Tania Galindo-Castañeda was the coordinator of the ROOTPHENOBIOME project. This explored how the root anatomy and architecture of maize affect the impact microbes in the soil have on the plant.

Frank Rogalla is director of innovation at Aqualia, a private provider of water services supplying 45 million people in 17 countries. His focus is on not wasting one drop of water, to which end he fuels his car with waste water. In his project RUN4LIFE Frank explored the best way of recovering fertilisers to grow food and avoid pollution.

Juan Suarez looked at how to make the most of Earth observation technologies, such as satellite imagery, to improve food security and sustainable development during his AfriCultuReS project. Juan is a senior manager at the Spanish company GMV.

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Keywords

CORDIScovery, CORDIS, ROOTPHENOBIOME, RUN4LIFE, AfriCultuReS, soil, remote sensing, Earth observation, roots, microbes, water, waste water, fertilise, food security