ИСТИНА

Food security includes three components: the ability of a country to produce or buy food, equal availability of food to the population, and the quality of foodstuffs (food safety). Food security is based on the rational use of natural resources, especially of land and soil. Land degradation is a growing threat to food security and ecosystem services in Europe and Central Asia. Driven by biophysical and socio-economic factors, aggravated by effects of climate change, it is one of the greatest challenges faced by all the countries of the region. The loss of soil productivity results in the depletion of the agricultural production and thus threatens food security. The Global Soil Partnership (GSP) initiative initiated by FAO prioritizes the introduction of sustainable soil management that requires intensification of applied research on soil conservation and reclamation, on the improvement of soil fertility. The researchers should establish the dialog with the decision-makers, private sector and non-governmental organizations, in order to stimulate them for the sustainable soil use. Also GSP recommended the establishment of soil monitoring system. The GSP principles are implementation through the regional partnerships; the Eurasian Soil Partnership has been established in 2103 and now started to implement its Plan of Action.