InBestSoil: Valuing soil health for a sustainable future

The InBestSoil project, funded by the European Union through the Horizon Europe programme, focuses on soil health as a fundamental pillar for the sustainability of the agri-food sector and the preservation of the environment. This ambitious project, led by the University of Vigo and coordinated by Diego Soto Gómez, seeks to assign an economic value to the ecosystem services provided by healthy soil, thus promoting its conservation and restoration.

Importance of Soil Health

Soil is an essential and non-renewable resource that plays a crucial role in agriculture, biodiversity and climate change mitigation. InBestSoil aims to highlight this importance by creating a framework for investing in soil health. The project aims to integrate soil health into business activity and policy-making, contributing to the development of the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 .

Experimental Zones and Improvement Techniques

InBestSoil has established experimental zones in various regions of Europe, where innovative techniques are being implemented to improve soil health. These areas, known as " lighthouses ", include activities on agricultural soils such as:

• Atlantic agricultural soil in the Netherlands , through crop diversification with the inclusion of lupine and clover to increase soil fertility through organic farming practices.
• Mediterranean agricultural soil in Italy , with the application of conservation agriculture practices to achieve sustainable soil management.
• Continental agricultural soil in Switzerland , with improved agricultural strategies to increase soil carbon storage.

It also includes actions on other types of land and activities:

• Agro-pastoralism in the Spanish dehesa to regenerate exhausted soils.
• Agriculture in peri-urban areas of Vilnius and Zagreb to improve soil infiltration and reduce flooding.
• Soil rehabilitation in abandoned mines and soil improvement in boreal forests using waste from the timber industry.

These initiatives allow the most effective techniques to be evaluated and exported to other locations, encouraging investment in sustainable solutions for soil health.

A Multinational and Multidisciplinary Project

With a budget of over 5 million euros, InBestSoil brings together 19 partners from 10 countries , including researchers, companies, farmers and NGOs, working together to design strategies to boost long-term soil resilience . Through cooperation and knowledge sharing, this project seeks to provide tools and models that facilitate the transition towards a more circular and sustainable economy .