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Realizing soil health for food security in Africa

Dramatic improvements in soil health are necessary to increase agricultural production and reduce crop failures. We provide recommendations for scaling of soil health and fertility management in Africa through practical approaches to prioritization, evidence-based policy and effective extension.

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Fig. 1: Soil health class status in Malawi.

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Contributions

S.S., J.C. and L.W. developed the ideas for the Comment jointly. S.S. wrote the initial draft. S.S., J.C., L.W., T.A., E.B., S.G., J.E.H., R.L., P.M., L.N., Z.S. and T.V contributed to subsequent revisions.

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Correspondence to Sieg Snapp.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Sustainability thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Snapp, S., Chamberlin, J., Winowiecki, L. et al. Realizing soil health for food security in Africa. Nat Sustain 8, 3–5 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01482-9

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