FGI side event Wageningen Soil Conference 2017
The third edition of the Wageningen Soil Conference “Soil Science in a Changing World” was held from August 28 until 31, 2017. As in previous editions, the aim was to discuss the importance of soils and the developments in soil science in the light of the global issues of food security, water resources, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and climate change. The Fertile Grounds Initiative organized the side event “Towards a circular Economy for Soil Nutrient management in Sub-Sahara Africa: from Concept to Business Case”.
Re-using soil nutrients is one of the keys towards sustainable agricultural intensification. However, to implement and scale nutrient re-using processes, viable business cases are essential. The Fertile Grounds Initiative (FGI) aims to close soil nutrient cycles at several levels of scale. Although the potential is there, prevailing technical, social and policy barriers hamper the adoption of more efficient soil nutrient management systems.
During the side event existing and potentially successful business cases were discussed. FGI wishes to stimulate business cases and partnerships that can take part in the active development of the FGI concept and
become involved in making the circular nutrient management reality.
