Flat: "Healthy soils produce healthy crops"

During the day, Planas stressed that healthy soils have a key role in food production and in the provision of essential ecosystem services.

As he stressed, "healthy soils produce healthy crops that feed people and animals," so we depend on them for the future of the planet. In this sense, the acting minister has ensured that guaranteeing a safe, healthy and nutritious diet for the population is one of the greatest technological and social challenges facing humanity.

The soils, part of the solution

Therefore, soils constitute a central element in the global agricultural and climate agenda. As noted, agriculture and the forestry sector can contribute effectively to climate change mitigation by their ability to store carbon and become sinks. Specifically, in Spain, forest lands in 2017 accounted for an absorption of 10% of total CO2 equivalent emissions.

4×1000 initiative

The 4×1000 Initiative emerged in the COP21 in Paris, promoted by France in 2015 and supported since its inception by Spain, to show that agriculture is a relevant player in the fight against climate change and in adapting production systems to new climate scenarios .

Its main objective is to advance, through research and innovation, in methods that improve the health of soils, the restoration of degraded agricultural land and the annual increase in the rate of carbon in the soil, so that allow to act as an effective CO2 sink.

Also, Planas has indicated that the soil and its health are directly involved in the 2030 Agenda and in achieving its Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 2, zero hunger, and SDG 12, responsible production and consumption.

The minister has referred to the integration of the objectives of the 4×1000 Initiative into the rules of application of the future Common Agricultural Policy. In this area, the future environmental architecture of the CAP seeks to involve the largest number of farmers who want to go beyond in its practices, producing greater benefits for the environment, adaptation to climate change and its mitigation.

He also believes that the CAP must seek synergies with other European and national policies and actions, to face the challenges of the next decade and achieve compliance with the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. In this context, he mentioned the "European Green Deal" (European Green Pact) that the European Commission will present today.