Up-to-date soil information is critical to facing the global challenges of changing weather patterns, water scarcity, and the increasing demand for food. Traditional soil maps don’t include the information producers, extension workers, program leaders, and decision-makers need to pinpoint productive, effective investment of time and resources.
Innovative digital soil mapping methodologies that include landscape factors allow us to identify the functional properties of soil, such as pH and depth, that land managers can use for decision-making. These living maps can be updated and improved as new information becomes available.
Since 2014, CRS has worked in collaboration with USDA mapping experts to recruit and train top governmental, academic and private sector institutions in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Southern Mexico to digitally map soil in critical agricultural areas.
