2018: 21st World Congress of Soil Science – Aug. 12-17, 2018, Rio de Janeiro

The Congress was organised by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), the Latin American Soil Science Society (SLCS) and the Brazilian Soil Science Society (SBCS). One session was dedicated to the initiative “4 per 1000”: “The organic matter of the soil to preserve the food and the water and the initiative “4 per 1000”. This session was chaired by Beata Madari, member of the Scientific and Technical Committee. It brought together more than 150 people and saw the interventions of Claire Chenu, also STC member, and Budiman Minasny, among others. Key issues were discussed, e.g. permanence of storage, carbon stabilization and the future of the science-policy dialogue. The latter relied on recent articles on carbon storage in initiative systems, such as “Increasing Organic Soil Stocks in Agricultural Soils: Knowledge Gaps and Potential Innovations“, Claire Chenu et al. 2018.
Furthermore, as part of the “Carbon sequestration potential of soils” session, led by Claire Chenu and Denis Angers, the article by M. Corbeels, R. Cardinael, K. Naudin, H. Guibert and E. Torquebiau “The 4 per 1000 goal and soil carbon storage under agroforestry and conservation agriculture systems in sub-Saharan Africa ” and the first results of the project” Scale out the 4 per 1000 initiative ” were presented by Julien Demenois. The carbon storage potentials of agroforestry and conservation agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa were presented. The need to develop multistakeholder approaches in the context of agricultural innovation systems was also put forward to ensure the dissemination of practices contributing to the objectives of the 4 per 1000 initiative.

Conference website : https://www.21wcss.org/