Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Break barriers in soil data stewardship by rewarding data generators

Emerging technologies can enhance the measurement and analysis of soil data and unleash its potential to support different ecosystem functions. However, concerns about ownership and reward complicate how and when the resulting data is shared. Soil data sharing must be incentivized to promote soil science.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: An example of the proposed Soil Data Shareward model.

References

  1. Rumpel, C. et al. Put more carbon in soils to meet Paris climate pledges. Nature 564, 32–34 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Status of the World’s Soil Resources: Main Report (FAO & ITPS, 2015); https://www.fao.org/3/i5199e/i5199e.pdf.

  3. Padarian, J., Minasny, B. & McBratney, A. B. Machine learning and soil sciences: a review aided by machine learning tools. SOIL 6, 35–52 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Fraser, E. D. G. & Campbell, M. Agriculture 5.0: Reconciling Production with Planetary Health. One Earth 1, 278–280 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Padarian, J., Minasny, B. & McBratney, A. B. Online machine learning for collaborative biophysical modelling. Environ. Model. Softw. 122, 104548 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Carletto, C., Aynekulu, E., Gourlay, S. & Shepherd, K. Collecting the Dirt on Soils: Advancements in Plot-Level Soil Testing and Implications for Agricultural Statistics (The World Bank, 2017); https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3c33f163-a5c2-53e7-81a0-a1862d235824/content.

  7. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: Evaluation of MDGs Specific Purpose Grant to Regions (World Bank, 2016); https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a0f3d760-4176-5f8e-a8eb-0fcff253c98f/content.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support provided by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) – Food from Thought project at the University of Guelph and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada (RGPIN-2020-05017).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Asim Biswas.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gobezie, T.B., Biswas, A. Break barriers in soil data stewardship by rewarding data generators. Nat Rev Earth Environ 4, 353–354 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00439-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00439-4

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing