A Continental-Scale Framework for Harmonised Soil Monitoring in African Agricultural Lands: Design, Implementation, and Baseline Field Observations from the Soils4Africa Project

@article{mesele2026continentalscale,
  title = {{A Continental-Scale Framework for Harmonised Soil Monitoring in African Agricultural Lands: Design, Implementation, and Baseline Field Observations from the Soils4Africa Project}},
  author = {Samuel Ayodele Mesele and Ádám Csorba and Bas Kempen and Mary Steverink-Mosugu and Abosede Busayo Babatunde and Mohamed Ouessar and Andrei Rozanov and Poulouma Louis Yaméogo and Mamoudou Traoré and Michael Okoti and Erika Michéli and Jeroen Huising},
  journal = {Soil Systems},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  doi = {10.3390/soilsystems10070079},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems10070079},
  note = {CC BY},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - A Continental-Scale Framework for Harmonised Soil Monitoring in African Agricultural Lands: Design, Implementation, and Baseline Field Observations from the Soils4Africa Project
AU  - Samuel Ayodele Mesele
AU  - Ádám Csorba
AU  - Bas Kempen
AU  - Mary Steverink-Mosugu
AU  - Abosede Busayo Babatunde
AU  - Mohamed Ouessar
AU  - Andrei Rozanov
AU  - Poulouma Louis Yaméogo
AU  - Mamoudou Traoré
AU  - Michael Okoti
AU  - Erika Michéli
AU  - Jeroen Huising
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/14
JO  - Soil Systems
DO  - 10.3390/soilsystems10070079
UR  - https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems10070079
AB  - Reliable and harmonised soil information remains critically limited across Africa, constraining soil monitoring, climate-resilient agriculture, and evidence-based land management. Existing soil resources are often fragmented, spatially uneven, outdated, or derived from legacy observations, limiting their usefulness for contemporary continental-scale assessment. The Soils4Africa project implemented a coordinated field campaign across 33 African countries between 2022 and 2025 to establish a harmonised soil monitoring framework for agricultural lands. Using a hierarchical probabilistic sampling design, 24,951 soil samples were collected from 14,311 locations, supported by standardised field protocols, digital data capture, QR-based sample traceability, and centralised quality control. This paper presents the conceptual, operational, and data-management framework underpinning the survey and reports baseline field observations on farming systems, land management, vegetation structure, and soil physical constraints. The framework achieved more than 70% of planned sampling coverage despite major logistical, environmental, and security-related constraints. Baseline observations show that African agricultural landscapes remain dominated by smallholder systems, low external input use, limited soil and water conservation, and widespread dependence on rainfed production. Field indicators also reveal sparse woody vegetation cover and common physical constraints, including compaction, coarse fragments, shallow effective rooting depth, and subsoil barriers. Unlike earlier continental resources based largely on legacy profiles or site-based surveillance, Soils4Africa provides a contemporary, harmonised, spatially structured field-survey framework designed to support future laboratory-based soil assessment, digital soil mapping, land suitability analysis, and long-term soil monitoring. The study therefore provides a scalable model for coordinated soil monitoring across diverse African agroecosystems and establishes an operational baseline for subsequent analytical studies.
SN  - 2571-8789
ER  -