Deadline: 23-Jul-23
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, the Alliance for Soil of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the Argentinian Association of Direct Seeding, Catholic Relief Services, the Project +Cotton from the International Cooperation of Brazil-FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through the Family Farming Knowledge Platform, Water Resources Management Team, Family Farming & Agroecology Communities of Practice of Africa and LAC, and the Soil Community of Practice for LAC invites all interested parties working on actions aimed at sustainable soil management to present good practices, innovations and technologies that can be replicated, adapted and scaled up in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.
This call is based on the premise that the adoption of good practices to achieve sustainable production systems and ensuring a healthy food system requires healthy soils and integrated water resources management. Sustainable soil and water management promote food security, healthy ecosystems, and livelihoods of farming families and communities.
Objective
- This Call seeks to identify diverse management techniques, innovations and practices that can help accelerate the transition and positive change towards sustainable soil and water management in sustainable and healthy food and forestry systems.
Priorities
- Priority will be given to those good practices that incorporate:
- Sustainable soil and water health practices:
- What silvo-agricultural techniques and practices have proven to promote sustainable management for healthy soil and water? Provide concrete experiences, best practices, and success stories of practices carried out by women and young farmers.
- This call asks for concrete examples of practices that spatially improve soil water management, increase water uptake and storage, and avoid water loss through runoff and evapotranspiration. Practices that reduce erosion, increase soil organic matter content (moisture retention), the use of dead vegetation and/or live cover, intercropping, rotations and nutrient balance management that allow efficient water use, practices that reduce salinity problems and irrigation strategies that reduce water losses.
- Co-creation, sharing and dissemination of local innovation for soil and water health:
- What kind of interactions, collaborations and tools have been used to accelerate the creation, sharing and dissemination of information and knowledge on soil health and water management practices and techniques? How can knowledge hubs be more effective in making agroecological knowledge accessible to small-scale food producers? Give examples of what and where they have been used. What are the factors behind their effectiveness?
- Capacities to improve soil health and water management and farmer autonomy:
- How can family farmers and agroecology practitioners be supported to innovate, test, adapt and adopt new agroecological management techniques that promote soil and water health? What kind of practices, collaborations and skills need to be developed to enable these people to implement sustainable soil management? What is the role of rural extension services and farmer organizations in this transition to drive co-creation and knowledge sharing?
- Sustainable soil and water health practices:
Eligibility Criteria
- The Call is aimed at all parties interested such as farmers, trainers, extension agents, technicians, professionals, among others, in actions oriented to sustainable soil and water management, and may belong to public agencies, research centers, international, multilateral and cooperation agencies, non-governmental and civil society organizations, communities and producers’ organizations, as well as corporations and private companies, among other actors related to the rural world.
- Parties interested in applying may do so individually or represented by any institution.
- The good practice is or has been developed in any country in Latin America, the Caribbean or Africa.
- Priority will be given to those applications that describe their experience in a clear, coherent and complete manner, and that are related to the topics prioritized by the call for proposals.
For more information, visit Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).