One of the key ingredients to a #ZeroHunger future is the soil beneath our feet. Although it may not look like much, soil is full of water, nutrients and microorganisms that are vital for growing our food. However, soil is a finite resource – restoring even a few centimetres of soil can take up to        1 000 years. So if we want to ensure food security and improved nutrition in the future, we need to take care of our soil today.

Yet, what if we told you that the equivalent of one soccer pitch of soil is eroded every five seconds? Shocking, right? It is safe to say that one of the major threats to soil and our food security is erosion. This refers to the removal of topsoil by water, wind or unsustainable agricultural activities such as intensive tillage. Some soil erosion is natural, occurring under all climatic conditions on all continents. But much of it is driven by unsustainable human activities – such as overgrazing, intensive agriculture and deforestation – that can increase the rate of soil erosion by up to 1 000 times.

Accelerated soil erosion can have disastrous consequences for all of us. If we don’t act now, over 90 percent of the Earth’s soils could become degraded by 2050.

Here are five ways that soil erosion is threatening our food security and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):