For 55 years, ISRIC – World Soil Information has worked together with many international partners to achieve sustainable use of soil, one of our most precious global resources. Take a journey with us back in time to explore where five and a half decades of soil information service work has led.

ISRIC - World Soil Information is pleased to announce our Spring School training program will be offered from May 16 to May 20, 2022 in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Registration is now open until capacity is reached.

The ISRIC Spring School is a weeklong in-person experience designed for soil and environmental scientists, graduate students, experts and professionals in natural resources management. It consists of two five-day courses (in English) that run in parallel about:

Celebrate World Soil Day 2021 with the Global Soil Museum Network by virtually visiting four soil museums around the world and learning about soil science and this year's theme: "Halt soil salinization, boost soil productivity."

The online event is on Thursday, December 2 at 13:00 Central European Time.

The program will include:

The FOSS4G conference is an annual global conference around Open Source Geospatial software. ISRIC – World Soil Information is an active participant in various open source communities, which shared their current and upcoming activities at the conference. This post highlights some of the presentations and contains links to the videos.

Since ancient times, people have believed in the sacredness of the earth and honor soil with different traditions. Sometimes these traditions include engaging in eating soil, also called geophagy. From 1 November until 17 December a new exhibit, Earth as Superfood, showcasing edible soils from around the world begins in two locations on Wageningen University and Research (WUR) campus, in the World Soil Museum and in the Impulse building.

On October 13, 2021, ISRIC – World Soil Information senior soil scientist Johan Leenaars delivered a guest lecture to the Soil Science Society of Nigeria and the Nigeria Institute of Soil Science on the topic: “Compiling a Nigerian Soil Profiles database for agricultural development.”

Though we may not recognise it on a daily basis, standards are important for all of us. They help us work together, to measure progress, and to ensure quality and fairness.

Multi-element soil extractions, like Mehlich 3, gained popularity in recent years. Mehlich 3 (M3) is a cost-effective method as it extracts macronutrients, including phosphorus and potassium, as well as micronutrients from soil samples. Availability of M3 data presents challenges for the use of soil and crop models that are calibrated based on different soil tests.