{"id":22998,"date":"2023-01-13T11:00:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resoilfoundation.org\/articles\/atlante-suolo-asia\/"},"modified":"2023-01-15T14:18:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T13:18:36","slug":"atlas-soil-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resoilfoundation.org\/en\/environment\/atlas-soil-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia has its first ‘soil atlas’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was created by the FAO Global Soil Partnership together with the Joint Research Center of the EU Commission. The tool will help to better understand the characteristics of the different soils of the continent. Among them, some of the most fertile on the planet. The food future of humanity depends on their sustainable management<\/h2>\n

by Emanuele Isonio<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Promoting sustainable soil management,<\/strong> preserving its health and combating degradation factors<\/strong> is essential. Both environmentally and humanly. Especially in the case of soils that are fertile or particularly valuable due to their ability to sequester carbon<\/strong>. But how do you know the best techniques without an updated and complete map of the different terrains of a macro-region? For this reason, the FAO Global Soil Partnership<\/a>, together with the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, has developed and published the first Soil Atlas of Asia.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"FOTO:

SOURCE: FAO Archive.<\/p><\/div>\n

A continent under pressure<\/h5>\n

Why exactly Asia? First of all because 60% of the entire world population<\/strong> lives on the continent. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for 2.2 billion people in the region. But from there come raw materials and food resources that are also precious for the West. In addition, already today a large number of inhabitants in Asia have food supply problems:<\/strong> 376 million suffer from hunger, over 1.1 billion have not had access to healthy food, 1.8 billion still cannot access to balanced diets.<\/p>\n

Rapid population growth<\/strong> (estimates predict that the continent will reach 5.3 billion inhabitants by mid-century) is putting increasing pressure<\/strong> on soil resources, with unprecedented rates of urbanization and growing demand for ecosystem services. Simply put: if sustainable land management practices are not implemented and land degradation continues at this rate, hunger will still increase in the foreseeable future. Also because the more frequent extreme weather events,<\/strong> connected to climate change, will provide additional pressures and factors of soil degradation.<\/p>\n

\n

Climate change makes drought 20 times more likely<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n