What is the Role of Soil in Food Security?

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Soil is a vital resource that supports life on Earth. It is the foundation for plant growth and agricultural production, and is a key part of the global water cycle. Healthy Soil is the bedrock of Food Security. Proper soil management is essential to maintaining healthy soils.

Healthy Soils provide an ideal environment for plants to thrive. They retain nutrients, making them available to plants, and good soil structure allows for proper aeration and water drainage.

Healthy soils host beneficial micro and mesofauna that decompose organic matter, release nutrients, degrade chemical contaminants and suppress harmful pathogens.

Well-cared for soils are less susceptible to erosion, require fewer agricultural inputs, and sequester carbon, contributing to climate change mitigation.

Healthy soils function as biological filters removing chemical and microbial contaminants from water, enabling use of marginal water sources for irrigation.

In their role as water filter, water storage reservoir, and regulator of water flow and evapotranspiration, healthy soils play a crucial role in the hydrologic cycle.

The scientists of our research institute work to promote healthy soils, increase the supply and safety of irrigation water sources, and improve agricultural management, thus supporting Food Security in myriad ways.

Addressing Soil Health and Function

We focus on enhancing soil productivity and sustainability:

• Optimizing Soil Nutrient Dynamics: Developing methods to improve nutrient uptake and availability, ensuring efficient resource utilization.

• Enhancing Soil Physical Structure: Alleviating compaction and improving structure, particularly in challenging soil types, to promote healthy root systems and water infiltration.

• Promoting Sustainable Soil Amendments: Transforming waste materials into beneficial soil conditioners and fertilizers, reducing reliance on synthetic inputs.

Mitigating Agricultural Impacts on Soil

Our research aims to minimize the environmental footprint of agriculture:

• Developing Sustainable Crop Protection: Creating biological pesticides and minimizing the use of harmful chemicals to protect soil health and biodiversity.

• Enhancing Plant Resilience to Environmental Stresses: Developing methods to improve plant tolerance to drought and salinity stress.

• Reducing Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Exploring novel strategies to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soils.

• Optimizing Irrigation Practices for Diverse Water Sources: Managing the effects of various irrigation water qualities (effluent, brackish, desalinated) to prevent soil degradation and maximize resource efficiency.

Join the Conversation

Innovations in soil and water management are essential to ensuring food security for future generations. Stay connected with the latest research and breakthroughs from the Institute of Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences at ARO's Volcani Institute.

For more information on our research and partnerships, visit us here.