Goa, 5 December 2022

 

ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Goa today celebrated ‘Word Soil Day’. The theme of World Soil Day for the year 2022 is ‘Soils: Where food begins’. Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Tourism Shri. Shripad Naik attended and addressed the programme. Soil Health Cards were distributed to the farmers on this occasion.  

Addressing the gathering, Shripad Naik appealed to scientists to focus on organic farming. He appealed to agricultural scientists to give maximum emphasis on not allowing soil texture to deteriorate. "Soil is our mother who nurtures us. So we should take care to maintain balance by using minimum chemical fertilizers. Designing crop patterns according to the ‘Agro climatic zone’ is essential as is encouraging intercropping. These steps need to be taken effectively", said Shri Naik.

Dr Himanshu Pathak, Secretary (Department of Agriculture Research and Education) and Director General (ICAR), who was Guest of Honour joined the programme virtually. In his address, he emphasized on soil health card schemes and ‘neem’ coated urea to increase fertilizer use efficiency. He urged all to work together to save the soil.

Dr Suresh Kumar Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), ICAR, New Delhi who was also Guest of Honour,  briefed about the importance of soil in food production. He highlighted the issues related to land degradation and soil health restoration. He also stressed on bringing school students and stakeholders who are not directly related to research under soil day programme to make them aware about soil health.

Dr. Parveen Kumar, Director, ICAR-CCARI  in his welcome address briefed about the history behind celebrating World Soil Day. He emphasized on the importance of soil and stressed upon maintaining good soil health to get healthy food for all. More than 100 farmers joined physically and about 6000 scientists, technical staff of ICAR joined the program virtually across the nation. On this occasion, soil health cards were also distributed to the 100 farmers.

Background

World Soil Day is held annually on 5 December as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and to advocate for the sustainable management of soil resources.An international day to celebrate soil was recommended by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in 2002. Under the leadership of the Kingdom of Thailand and within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership, FAO has supported the formal establishment of WSD as a global awareness raising platform. The FAO Conference unanimously endorsed World Soil Day in June 2013 and requested its official adoption at the 68th UN General Assembly. In December 2013, the UN General Assembly responded by designating 5 December 2014 as the first official World Soil Day.

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