{"id":3848,"date":"2025-10-03T13:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T18:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/?p=3848"},"modified":"2025-10-28T08:34:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:34:23","slug":"building-regional-momentum-soil-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/events\/building-regional-momentum-soil-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Roundtable on Integrated Soil Fertility Management"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On August 27, 2025, stakeholders from across East Africa gathered virtually to discuss national and regional initiatives to address soil health. The meeting, convened by IISD\u2019s State of Sustainability Initiatives team, provided a platform to present draft regional guidelines on lime production and application in conjunction with integrated soil fertility management practices, exchange feedback, and highlight emerging national initiatives on soil data and access.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who Was in the Room<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The discussion brought together representatives from the East African Community (EAC), national experts, and consultants working closely with IISD.<\/p>\n<p>Key participants included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>EAC and country representatives:<\/strong> Fahari Marwa (EAC), Alex Otut (Uganda), Marie Chantal (Burundi), Simon Muchigiri (Kenya), John Mutombo (Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC]), Stephane Mubilayi<\/li>\n<li><strong>IISD and consultants:<\/strong> Erika Luna (IISD), Esther Muindi, Sylvere Sirikare<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Country Stories of Progress<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kenya<\/strong><br \/>\nKenya is harmonizing soil acidity datasets in collaboration with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization and is in the process of launching the Kenya Soil Information System (KenSIS), a tool that will help inform interventions aiming at improving soil health as well as agricultural supply chains. Farmers, as the core actors in managing soils, must also be equipped with additional tools, and that\u2019s how they are beginning to access lime directly in stores, with granulated lime gaining traction and plans underway to integrate lime into subsidy programs. Training initiatives are also equipping farmers with practical knowledge on lime application.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Uganda<\/strong><br \/>\nUganda shared a regulatory perspective, highlighting new momentum around organic amendments and organomineral blends. Domestic lime manufacturing and product testing are advancing, supported by Uganda\u2019s National Agricultural Research Organization efforts to update national soil maps. Cross-border private sector investment, including from Tanzania, is reinforcing this progress.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the DRC, private sector interest in lime is increasing, though financing remains a major constraint.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Burundi<\/strong><br \/>\nWith approximately 75% of its arable land affected by soil acidity, Burundi is scaling up lime production, now operating five factories and planning an organomineral plant. Parallel efforts in soil testing and mapping are strengthening production, commercialization, and subsidy mechanisms. Universities are playing an active role through demonstration plots.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>shared momentum:<\/strong> Across the region, both soil data systems and lime supply chains are gaining traction.<\/li>\n<li><strong>policy integration:<\/strong> Embedding lime into national subsidy schemes and policy frameworks will be decisive for scaling adoption.<\/li>\n<li><strong>private sector growth:<\/strong> Capacity is expanding, though quality assurance, product registration, and financing conditions differ by country.<\/li>\n<li><strong>smarter use of data:<\/strong> Initiatives like KenSIS demonstrate how harmonized soil maps can guide better targeted lime application and soil conservation practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On August 27, 2025, stakeholders from across East Africa gathered virtually to discuss national and regional initiatives to address soil health. The meeting, convened by IISD\u2019s State of Sustainability Initiatives team, provided a platform to present draft regional guidelines on lime production and application in conjunction with integrated soil fertility management practices, exchange feedback, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/ssi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}