The soil is used to being perceived as something eternal, self-evident. Agronomists, researchers, and amateur farmers plow, sow, and harvest, and rarely think about the fact that the fertile layer beneath their feet is not just a valuable resource, but also an extremely vulnerable one. The formation of one centimeter of fertile soil in nature takes decades, and in the northern and arid regions — for centuries. At the same time, we lose this centimeter much faster. According to the expert, in Russia more than 56% of agricultural lands are already in a state of degradation: erosion, salinization, loss of humus, compaction and even desertification are becoming a familiar landscape in vast territories. Chernozems, which have always been the pride of the country, have lost from 20 to 50 percent of their original fertility. Every year, from one and a half to two million hectares of soil become less productive or go out of circulation altogether. And these are not just numbers in the reports — they are a direct blow to food security, because up to 95% of all food is obtained by humanity from the soil.

"The problem is compounded by the fact that soil is a renewable resource only conditionally. Natural recovery is so slow that in practice we are dealing with an irreparable loss. Climate change is only accelerating this process: droughts are becoming more frequent, wind erosion is becoming more intense, and traditional methods of maintaining fertility in the form of fertilizers and land reclamation are no longer coping. A fundamentally different approach is needed. And this is exactly the approach we propose within the framework of the new national environmental and climate initiative," says Tatiana Minkina, Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Department of Soil Science and Land Resources Assessment at the D.I. Ivanovsky Academy of Biology and Medicine of the Southern Federal University.

The idea is called "Creating sustainable soils for future generations of Russia." In fact, we are talking about the transition to the concept of "live engineering", where the soil ecosystem itself becomes the object of management.

As part of this project, a group of scientists from SFedU Academy of biology and medicine proposes to create a national soil bioengineering system, an interdisciplinary platform that will bring together scientists, farmers, regional authorities and technology developers. The logic of this system is built in three stages. At the first stage, digital diagnostics is carried out: the soil profile, climate zone, and target crop are analyzed, and a kind of "recipe" for the future soil system is created. At the second stage, production is launched: organic waste from the agro—industrial complex is processed into biogenic components, artificial soil matrices are synthesized, and a controlled microbiome is formed in them - the very living basis that ensures biological fertility. At the third stage, the finished substrate is applied to the degraded area, after which its condition is digitally monitored in real time with the possibility of correcting biological activity. In other words, this is far from a one-time campaign to improve the soil, but a full-fledged technology of soil reproduction as a product.

The key difference between this approach is that today existing solutions work separately, such as fertilizers, land reclamation, reclamation, and biologics. They solve their local problems, but they don't change the situation systematically. In the new model, in unsuitable territories, the soil is designed from scratch for a specific task, and organic waste becomes not a disposal problem, but an incoming resource, and therefore a closed cycle is formed. In addition, as the scientists explain, modern technologies make it possible to create a digital twin of the site's soil system, predict its condition and adjust management. It is also interesting that today in Russia there are no state standards for artificial soils, and their development is also included in the initiative as a separate task.

It is worth noting that the proposed initiative is far from fiction, because SFedU scientists have been working on the creation of artificial soils for several years. For example, a unique soil experiment has already been conducted in the Rostov region, in which researchers do not just restore degraded land, but construct the soil from scratch: they select a mineral base, an organic component, and form the necessary microbial community. This makes it possible to obtain a stable soil system with specified properties, adapted to a specific agricultural crop or to the tasks of restoring technogenically disturbed territories.

A separate area is the management of the soil microbiome. We are not talking about adding standard biological products to the soil, which work unpredictably in different conditions. SFedU scientists study the mechanisms of adaptation of microorganisms in polluted and degraded soils and learn how to form stable microbial communities with specified functions: nitrogen fixation, phosphorus availability, suppression of soil pathogens, and assistance to plants in conditions of drought or salinity. And in this case, we are not talking about the mundane "feeding the soil with bacteria," but about real bioengineering, where the microbiome becomes a controlled fertility tool.

The possibilities of this approach are especially noticeable where nature has already lost to man. In the territories of former quarries, tailings dumps and industrial sites, the soil is often so disturbed that it cannot recover on its own. This is where soil bioengineering transforms from a scientific concept into an applied tool.

The SFedU has been working with similar facilities in our country for several years. In Kalmykia, researchers are helping to bring back to life unproductive pastures and lands that have gradually lost their ability to support vegetation.

For scientists, this is an opportunity to test how stable artificially formed soils can be in real conditions. For regions and businesses, this is a chance to get technologies that allow not only to slow down land degradation, but also to return them to economic circulation. This is becoming especially relevant now, when the requirements for the reclamation of disturbed territories are noticeably stricter, and responsibility for their restoration increasingly falls on subsurface users and industrial companies.

The initiative brings together specialists in the fields of soil science, microbiology, biotechnology, chemistry, IT technology and agricultural economics. One of the key participants in the project is Tatiana Minkina, Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Department of Soil Science and Land Resources Assessment at SFedU. She is on the global list of the most cited scientists according to Elsevier (Top 2% of Scientists), has led more than 50 Russian and international scientific projects, and is a recipient of the Russian Federation's Professor of the Year Award. Zorigto Namsaraev, PhD, Head of the Laboratory of Synthetic Biology at the Kurchatov Genomic Center at the Kurchatov Institute and a leading researcher at Sirius University of Science and Technology, is responsible for the area related to the management of microbial communities and synthetic biology. His research focuses on the management of microbial communities in natural and industrial ecosystems. For his contribution to the development of science, he was awarded the Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation. Ilya Makarov, founder of the Organic Mix company, one of the Russian producers of organic fertilizers, provides a practical view on the implementation of technologies. For many years, he has been involved in the restoration of soil fertility and the development of bioeconomics, acting as an expert on industry platforms and professional communities.

A broad consortium is already forming around the project. It includes the Kurchatov Institute, Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Timiryazev Russian State Agrarian University, the Institute of Forestry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Siberian Federal University, Kaliningrad State Technical University, the Skolkovo Foundation, LIMKORM LLC, as well as regions and agro—industrial companies interested in the practical implementation of soil reproduction technologies.

"Today, the idea of soil reproduction sounds unusual to many. But a few decades ago, precision farming technologies, genomic research of plants, or digital monitoring of agricultural land seemed just as bold. Meanwhile, the problem persists: fertile lands continue to degrade faster than they can recover naturally. Therefore, the question is not only how to preserve existing soils, but also whether it is possible to learn how to reproduce their properties where they were lost," Tatiana Minkina summed up.

SFedU scientists and their partners believe that this approach is quite realistic. Artificial soils, managed microbial communities, and biorestoration technologies are already going beyond the laboratory and are being tested in the field. Perhaps in a few years, the creation of soil systems with specified properties will become as much a part of modern agricultural technology as plant breeding or irrigation systems. And then we will talk not only about the preservation of land resources, but also about the possibility of restoring to life territories that were recently considered hopelessly lost.

The initiative has already gone beyond the scope of scientific discussion – an application for its implementation has been submitted and is under consideration.