Geneva, 8 April 2024
Soil serves as the farmer’s capital, crucial for ensuring food security and fostering thriving communities, economies, and ecosystems. The health of soils directly impacts crop productivity, influencing yields and farmers’ incomes. Approximately 95% of global food production relies on soil resources.
Agricultural soils, when managed sustainably, offer significant potential to generate the ecosystem services on which agricultural production depends. Sustainable soil management enhances soil health by facilitating nutrient cycling, water regulation, and support for plant growth. Scientific evidence underscores the long-term benefits of this approach, enhancing agricultural productivity and resilience while mitigating environmental degradation.
Despite this potential, studies reveal that European farmers suffer a €1.25 billion annual loss in agricultural productivity due to soil erosion, representing an enormous financial opportunity not only for farmers themselves but also for governments and the food and drink industry if soils were improved and protected, according to a recent industry-led analysis.
Ahead of the publication of the Commission’s proposal, various stakeholders within and beyond the agricultural value chain have expressed support for a robust soil law that contributes to achieving the European climate and biodiversity objectives for 2030, while enabling the agricultural sector to remain competitive and improving farmers’ livelihoods. The ongoing soil monitoring and resilience directive marks an important step toward that end, provided it acknowledges agriculture’s pivotal role in soil regeneration, which should be further supported.
We welcome the constructive nature of the negotiations in the ENVI and AGRI Committees on this file so far. In view of the upcoming vote on the soil monitoring and resilience directive, the undersigned companies, farmer cooperatives, and private sector representatives call on Members of the European Parliament to:
- Support a well-designed and ambitious Soil Monitoring Law in your vote: As described above, European soils have great potential to deliver multifold benefits. A European Law to improve the health of our soils is urgently needed to face this challenge. For this reason, we recommend supporting a well-designed Soil Monitoring Law in line with the rapporteur’s report to achieve healthy soils by 2050.
- Support the application of sustainable soil management principles: Considering agriculture’s central role in improving soil health, the sustainable soil management principles listed in the original legislative proposal and the rapporteur’s report in Annex III as well as the requirement for Member States to translate them into concrete practices and implement them on their soils as outlined in Article 10 (1) is crucial for the achievement of soil health in 2050. These principles provide guidance in agricultural contexts and underpin the already ongoing regenerating practices adopted by soil stewards in Europe.
- Create public financial instruments to support the implementation of sustainable soil management: Putting in place the financial means to implement sustainable soil management practices is just as important as setting the right direction for soil regeneration. Beyond maintaining the requirement for member states to map available funding instruments to deploy these practices, there is a strong need for additional financial investments and public funding at the farm level to ensure the effective implementation of the Law’s objectives while ensuring that the agricultural sector remains competitive. It is estimated that the costs for the first year of farmers’ adoption of sustainable soil management practices range between €28-35 billion per year. This need for additional funding is particularly relevant in the current context, as farmers rightfully demand long-overdue protection for their income. Though these figures may appear costly in the short term, they certainly pay off in the long run when we consider the costs of inaction, which include agricultural yield losses and the disruption of ecosystem services due to degraded soils.
- Set feasible measurement requirements: Monitoring soil health descriptors is essential to assess the effectiveness of implemented measures, track trends in soil quality over time, and identify areas needing intervention. However, the monitoring requirements established by the legislation must not incur an additional financial and administrative burden to farmers to avoid further threats to rural livelihoods, taking into account their financial vulnerability. Measurements should, in fact, support farmers’ access to incentive and reward schemes for the generation of ecosystem services.
Additionally, we urge that the soil health indicators and descriptors put forward by the directive take into consideration the ongoing alignment work on metrics and outcomes being conducted by the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI Platform) and WBCSD representing the agricultural value chain, and by REGEN10, a multistakeholder platform. This strategic alignment ensures the concertation of efforts, facilitating consistency, compliance, and transparency when it comes to implementation. Furthermore, such metrics allow stakeholders to track investments made in regeneration, assess their efficiency, and promote the implementation of well- established regenerative practices.
Thank you for your attention and understanding of the importance of this matter. We look forward to your support in voting in favor of an ambitious soil law.
Sincerely,
