Can the Dimensions of Soil Security Frame Our Approach to Food and Water Security?.

The emerging concept of soil security is concerned, in part,  with the maintenance and improvement of the soil resource to produce, food, fibre, and freshwater and the use of the term security here is in the same sense that is used for food and water securities. These issues are assessed, managed and secured through a combination of measuring inherent and manageable soil properties that are indicators of the soil’s function, as well as, being affected by decisions that are value driven and contextual including economic and regulatory drivers. Therefore to assess the optimal state of the soil, its current state and how it can secure food and water requires a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary approach.

Food security, whether global, national or regional, is built on being available, accessible and its use. Having access to the resources to support food production and the knowledge of how to manage these resources ensures the availability of food. The functions required of soil are to support biomass production and yield by storing sufficient nutrients and water. Water shortages are an immediate threat and the ability to harvest water is not only affected by its availability from source but the growing political and policy tensions deciding how water can be allocated to support both urban and agricultural demands. While engineering, such as dams and irrigation schemes, is part of the solution the scarcity of water is also being addressed by looking for management strategies to maximize the soil’s storage of water and improving our understanding of the plant-soil-water interactions. Both of these, in part, contribute to the idea of water-use efficiency that strives to maximize biomass production and yield, and it is this potential that needs to inform the value placed on the soil resource and the regulation formulated for its management.