ZAMBIA NEEDS SOIL BASED ECONOMY-SHENTON

ZAMBIA NEEDS SOIL BASED ECONOMY-SHENTON

By Alfonso Kasongo

With the adverse effects of climate change becoming more luminous,threatening the country's food security,  an environmentalist Rolf Shenton has insisted the need for investment in soil so as to build a soil-based economy.

The setting up of a soil-based carbon economy, within this emerging financial space, has the potential to deliver a paradigm shift that will accelerate climate change mitigation, and concurrently realize net gains for soil health and the delivery of soil ecosystem services.

Zambia has seen worst effects of climate change in 20-years with over 60 percent maize crop in the 2023-2024 farming season being destroyed due drought.

The situation has since been declared a national disaster by Republican President Hakainde Hichilema.

And Mr. Shenton says a soil-based economy remains key in positioning  the country in readiness for climatic shocks and those which could be triggered by diminishing natural resources such as minerals 

Therefore, Mr. Shenton observes that calls for a soil-based economy is over long overdue and can not overemphasized.

Mr. Shenton (far left in checked shirt) posing for a photo during the ongoing Accelerating Nature Based Solutions Conference in Livingstone,Zambia

The environmentalist,however, warns that  failure to invest in soil and building a soil-based economy will be catastrophic for the country in times of climate change crisis as well as when the minerals face extinction.

Mr. Shenton further advises that the rising population and its demands for more consumption goods such as maize is a wakeup call for the government to consider building a soil-based economy, suggesting the need to invest copper earnings into soil.


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