World Soil Day: 5 December
- December 5, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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World Soil Day: 5 December
Subject :Environment
About-
- It was recommended by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in 2002.
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has supported the formal establishment of WSD as a global awareness-raising platform under the leadership of the Kingdom of Thailand within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership.
- 5th December 2014 was designated as the first official WSD by the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
- 5th December was chosen because it corresponds with the official birthday of H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand, who officially sanctioned the event.
FAO gives two awards in line with this day:
- The King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award: An annual award that honours individuals, communities, organizations and countries that organized remarkable and engaging World Soil Day activities or campaigns in the previous year.
- The Glinka World Soil Prize: An annual award for dynamic change-makers dedicated to solving one of our world’s most pressing environmental issues: soil degradation.
- It honours individuals and organizations whose leadership and activities have contributed, or are still contributing to the promotion of sustainable soil management and the protection of soil resources.
Soils: where food begins
- Soil is made up of organisms, minerals, and organic components that provide food for humans and animals through plant growth.
- Soils need a balanced and varied supply of nutrients in appropriate amounts to be healthy. Agricultural systems lose nutrients with each harvest, and if soils are not managed sustainably, fertility is progressively lost, and soils will produce nutrient-deficient plants.
- Soil nutrient loss is a major soil degradation process threatening nutrition.
- Over the last 70 years, the level of vitamins and nutrients in food has drastically decreased, and it is estimated that 2 billion people worldwide suffer from a lack of micronutrients, known as hidden hunger because it is difficult to detect.
- Soil degradation induces some soils to be nutrient depleted losing their capacity to support crops, while others have such a high nutrient concentration that represent a toxic environment to plants and animals, pollute the environment and cause climate change.
- World Soil Day 2022 (#WorldSoilDay) and its campaign “Soils: Where food begins” aims to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being by addressing the growing challenges in soil management, increasing soil awareness and encouraging societies to improve soil health.
Important facts-
- 95% of our food comes from soils.
- 18 naturally occurring chemical elements are essential to plants. Soils supply 15.
- Agricultural production will have to increase by 60% to meet the global food demand in 2050.
- 33% of soils are degraded.
- Up to 58% more food could be produced through sustainable soil management.
India Initiatives to Improve Soil Health:
- Soil Health Card Scheme
- The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare introduced the scheme on December 5, 2015.
- Soil Health Card (SHC) is a printed report which contains the nutrient status of soil with respect to 12 nutrients: pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Organic Carbon (OC), Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Sulphur (S), Zinc (Zn), Boron (B), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn) and Copper (Cu) of farm holdings.
- SHC is provided to all farmers in the country at an interval of 3 years to enable the farmers to apply recommended doses of nutrients based on soil test values to realize improved and sustainable soil health and fertility, low costs and higher profits. Farmers can track their soil samples and also obtain their Soil Health Card report.
- It is a field-specific detailed report of soil fertility status and other important soil parameters that affect crop productivity.
- National Productivity Council
- It is a national-level organization to promote productivity culture in India.
- Established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India in 1958, it is an autonomous, multipartite, non-profit organization.
- Organic Farming
- According to FSSAI,’ organic farming’ is a system of farm design and management to create an ecosystem of agriculture production without the use of synthetic external inputs such as chemical fertilisers, pesticides and synthetic hormones or genetically modified organisms.
- Organic farming uses natural fertilizers which are a better alternative, as they replenish the soil with essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium; while offering the added benefit of providing the soil with organic matter.
- Natural fertilizers include livestock manure, mulch, municipal sludge, and legume plants such as alfalfa or clover.
- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana
- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, launched in 2015 is an elaborated component of Soil Health Management (SHM) of the major project National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
- Under PKVY, Organic farming is promoted through adoption of organic villages by cluster approach and Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification.
- Fertilizer Self-Sufficiency
- Digital Agriculture
- Digital Agriculture is “ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and data ecosystems to support the development and delivery of timely, targeted information and services to make farming profitable and sustainable while delivering safe nutritious and affordable food for all.”
- Examples:
- Agricultural biotechnology is a range of tools, including traditional breeding techniques, that alter living organisms, or parts of organisms, to make or modify products; improve plants or animals; or develop microorganisms for specific agricultural uses.
- Precision agriculture (PA) is an approach where inputs are utilised in precise amounts to get increased average yields, compared to traditional cultivation techniques such as agroforestry, intercropping, crop rotation, etc. It is based on using ICTs.
- Digital and wireless technologies for data measurement, Weather monitoring, Robotics/drone technology, etc.
- AgriStack: The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has planned creating ‘AgriStack’ – a collection of technology-based interventions in agriculture. It will create a unified platform for farmers to provide them end to end services across the agriculture food value chain.
- Digital Agriculture Mission: This has been initiated for 2021 -2025 by the government for projects based on new technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, remote sensing and GIS technology, use of drones and robots etc.
- Carbon Farming
- Carbon farming (also known as carbon sequestration) is a system of agricultural management that helps the land store more carbon and reduce the amount of GHG that it releases into the atmosphere.
- It involves practices that are known to improve the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and converted to plant material and soil organic matter.
- Carbon farming is successful when carbon gains resulting from enhanced land management or conservation practices exceed carbon losses.
- The Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) Scheme
- It has been implemented from April 2010 by the DoF.
- Under NBS, a fixed amount of subsidy decided on an annual basis, is provided on each grade of subsidized Phosphatic & Potassic (P&K) fertilizers depending on its nutrient content.
- It aims at ensuring the balanced use of fertilizers, improving agricultural productivity, promoting the growth of the indigenous fertilizers industry and also reducing the burden of Subsidy.