Soils are the basis of prosperity
Prosperity creation is very closely linked to food security and the availability of fertile land. Even if this awareness has been largely forgotten by us today, fertile soils have been the basis for cultural development and prosperity throughout human history. They still are today.
Where soils in Germany were fertile and produced good yields due to their natural development, we find a higher density of prosperity nowadays. Where soils were preserved in their functions beyond food production, advanced civilizations rose. Where they were destroyed by humans, humans also suffered. The principle “Healthy Soils – Healthy People” applies to every region of our planet.
Good earth invoke civilization
Of course, the exploitation of mineral resources such as salt and crude oil deposits, climatic or geo-political factors have further shifted or defused this dependency in the course of cultural history. Just because of their manyfold functions, soils posess an exorbinant high rank in our daily lives through provision of clean drinking water and groundwater, their role as dust and pollutant scavengers, carbon sinks, as well as natural room of food production, a room for forests, and as a reliable building ground for infrastructure, just to name a few. Fertile soils are key to civilization.
If we use soils carefully and conscientiously in their functions, this always has a direct and indirect, short-term and long-term effect on our prosperity. Soils even have the potential to be a profitable capital investment.
The beginning of prosperity
In countries where horticulture, arable farming and livestock breeding are the only sources of income for the majority of households, the soil factor is crucial to survival. In such environments, agriculture is largely subsistence-oriented, that is, the things of daily life are produced and manufactured for one’s own family. Surpluses are sold on the local market. This is the beginning of the path to a higher level of prosperity. Where people live sedentary lives, development of prosperity takes place in and on the available land and continues to progress with innovations in and on this livelihood.
This is very evident in the tropical forest “slash-and-burn” practices. In this process, rainforest area is cleared and set on fire, and the area is then used for agriculture for a few years. Yields decrease annually as the fertilizing wood ash effect is consumed in the naturally very poor soil. The area is then abandoned, whereupon secondary forest grows for the next 10-30 years. The next area, used about 30 years ago, is set on fire. This starts the cycle all over again. Such systems are sustainable as long as population pressure remains low. If the community living there grows in numbers, either more land must be used or innovation must be used to produce more and for longer on the same land. In many parts of Africa, one household family lives on an average of two hectares of land.
Projects that aim at preserving and enhancing soils as a livelihood are a direct contribution out of poverty and into building and sustaining prosperity.
Indicators make the impact of your project visible in a before-and-after comparison. For this purpose, indicators are either developed on individual basis for your project or drawn from standardized boards.
Successful prosperity projects exclusively dwell from the mindset of the target group and are fertilized, blossomed and matured through development service.
By connecting and participating in the marketplace, you hold the key to financial prosperity.
My offer includes support of R&D projects providing services of general project management, quality management according to ISO 9001:2015, marketing and sales support, workshops, trainings as well as product validation according to scientific standards.