The Forum will host three conferences and panel discussions centered around the same question: “How can we protect our soils for the safety and well-being of human society as well as for the functioning of ecosystems, agricultural production, and forestry?”, but will pursue the answer through a variety of disciplinary lenses.

Artificial intelligence for soil health

In order to maximize the use of production potential, environmental services across agriculture, and to enhance the competitiveness of farms and other land dependent enterprises, new information on soil health and novel approaches of soil data management are required. The multiple opportunities made available by AI technologies to produce such information can be adopted to provide new perspectives for monitoring and managing soil resources.

Improving soil health: amendments, monitoring and modelling

The application of soil amendments remains a contentious issue.  Current debates are focusing on avoiding the overuse of fertilizers and other soil amendments, as their long-term adverse effects may outweigh the immediate benefits.

Soil quality monitoring and modeling facilitate a comprehensive understanding of soil physical, chemical, and biological processes, which can help farmers and stakeholders to implement mitigation techniques. Advances in technology, including continuous soil and plant monitoring sensors and remote sensing capabilities, significantly reduce the need for manual labor and time investment, enabling rapid acquisition of data on soil and plant health.

Soil organic carbon and soil health

The meeting focuses on the EU Soil Policy Plans, specifically the Community Soil Action Plan under the European Green Agreement, and aims to promote sustainable, climate-smart soil use and restoration of soil health. It highlights the impact of regulatory frameworks and agricultural subsidies on soil health and emphasizes the need for science-based policies to protect soil. The conference will explore technical and socio-economic options for improving soil organic carbon and health, and introduce an analytical framework to discuss gaps between theoretical goals, legislation, and actual soil protection practices, with an example from Hungarian law.

Panel discussions on soil management innovations

The overall goal of this event is to celebrate multistakeholder collaborations on soil-health-oriented innovations and improve the dialogue between OGs, farmers, foresters, advisors, researchers and other relevant actors in agriculture and forestry innovation, and rural development across Europe. Through insightful panel discussions with selected OGs, the Budapest Soil Health Forum will demonstrate these collaborations’ potential, whose partners bring together relevant complementary knowledge to improve soil health.

Visit the soil health forum website to learn more.