Salinity and associated land degradation in parts of the Northeast of Thailand limits production. Knowledge of saline soil management was integrated into an organic agriculture system: dolomite application adjusted pH levels, manure increased the soil's organic matter, while fermented bio-extracts stimulated root systems. Yields of chili pepper and parsley improved greatly.
Artificial reseeding is a key method for restoring degraded rangelands. It involves reintroducing native, palatable fodder species to improve vegetation cover, soil health, and biodiversity. This process boosts forage for grazing animals, stabilizes soil, and helps combat desertification, enhancing ecosystem health and productivity.
An integrated community-led initiative has been established to restore the degraded forests in Paktya province. This initiative focuses on setting up nurseries and incorporates both indigenous and scientific knowledge to cultivate climate-resilient species, such as Cedrus deodara and Pinus gerardiana. These efforts have enhanced the community’s knowledge and skills in sapling production and transplantation, leading to significant improvements in the productivity of these key species, which holds substantial ecological, social, culture, and economic value.
Water exploitation is a major issue in Afghanistan, and this technology helps to irrigate an afforestation/agroforestry area (demonstration plot) using surface water (rivers) and solar-powered submersible pump. The construction of reservoirs at the demo plot site ensures efficient water storage and use for irrigation purposes without relying on groundwater. A well-designed pipe irrigation scheme is implemented to distribute water evenly across the site, supporting plant irrigation and growth.
Restoring degraded rangelands through quarantine in Qadis district, Badghis Afghanistan
A field at risk for erosion by water is divided so that a grass strip prevents soil loss and further damage to the field and the streets during a heavy rainfall.
Robusta coffee in the Central Highlands of Vietnam is intercropped with pepper vines and fruit trees thus increasing the total planting density. This leads to higher land equivalent ratios compared to monocropping, thereby increasing land use efficiency, profitability, soil protection and resilience.
In response to changing environmental conditions, it can be valuable to adopt new plant varieties that offer benefits such as drought tolerance. The technology described covers one such response in Switzerland.
The technology integrates off-grid soil-less cultivation within a net house, utilizing solar-powered root zone cooling and ultra-low energy irrigation, thus significantly enhancing water and energy efficiency for sustainable agriculture in arid regions. This innovation is a key contribution within the Water-Energy-Food Nexus, addressing the unique challenges of food production in the Middle East.
Reconstitution of soils is a pedotechnique based on the treatment of organic and non-organic pedomaterials to achieve benefits in areas with barren, degraded, desertified and/ or sealed soils.
There are opportunities for robust forest management strategies in Germany to enhance land-based climate change mitigation. Through targeted measures, forest management can contribute to the continuous uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere by trees, and to the increase of carbon stocks in living and dead biomass, as well as in the soil.
This organic agriculture technology combines reduced tillage with organic farming practices to enhance soil health, increase carbon sequestration, and maintain sustainable agricultural productivity.
The riparian zone is the buffer area between a watercourse and the adjacent land. Healthy riparian ecosystems stabilise the banks, maintain the microclimate, protect against flooding, filter chemicals and improve both biodiversity and water quality.
Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) has been promoted by the Land Development Department as a green manure plant with the objectives of increasing soil organic matter, improving soil fertility and reducing salinity levels.
Plantation pits are water harvesting structures which capture rainfall runoff for planting trees and shrubs. They can also be manually watered. Their size varies, but each plantation pit is approximately 2 metres x 1 metre wide and up to 1 metre deep.
Shallow tillage involves disturbing the upper layer of soil without deep ploughing. It aims to provide a good seedbed, incorporate manure, control weeds, and enhance water infiltration while minimizing soil erosion and compaction. A machine tiller has recently replaced animal traction for this purpose.
Peatland rewetting is a climate change mitigation technology that involves raising and maintaining high water tables in agricultural peatland through controlled drainage. It reduces soil subsidence and CO2 emissions while preserving biodiversity. This technology offers environmental benefits but faces challenges in policy support and economic viability.
An urban community forestry park – the “Ked Forest Park” - has been established by a group of people who wanted to conserve and develop resources and the environment in Phra Pradaeng District. Planting and maintenance of indigenous, edible and medicinal plants are carried out.
Area enclosures are a set of restoration strategies through which land is cleared of invasive species, restored using a combination of agronomic, structural, and vegetative measures, and surrounded by barriers to restrict unauthorized entry and minimize disturbance.
Under the leadership of the Pastoralist Women Land Management Committee at village level, 100 acers of village wasteland were transformed into a rich pastures to be used by village livestock herds and, in this way providing food and livelihood security to local communities and restoring biodiversity within native grasses and indigenous livestock breeds.
An agroforestry system consisting of rows of walnut and hazelnut trees combined with grassland and flowers was applied in place of a former conventional monoculture system in Alphen, Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands.
Degraded or abandoned agricultural land is under restoration in an area with a mediterranean climate, and a high risk of desertification. Plantations are based on indigenous forest species, mainly holm oak and cork oak, to ensure a sustainable mature forest in the future.
Approximately 20,000 hectares of degraded land is being rehabilitated land using assisted natural regeneration, enrichment planting and agroforestry. The resultant secondary forests and agroforests will have high values for ecotourism, sequester substantial amounts of carbon, produce a range of in-demand commodities (e.g., coffee, spices), generate bioenergy, and offer improved ecosystem services.
Transforming a monocrop coconut farm into a resilient food forest can sustainably enhance soil health, biodiversity and productivity while reducing labour and external input requirements. This demonstrates the potential to increase yields and provide long-term economic and ecological stability for farmers.
The Montado/ Dehesa Agroforestry system contributes to carbon sequestration in Spain and Portugal. The SmartAG app helps in monitoring and management of these systems, providing data available to farmers, producers, and stakeholders.