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World Soil Day: History, Themes, and Celebrations

The soil beneath us doesn’t always get the proper credit it deserves. It supports the lives of a huge number of living organisms and keeps the earth alive. We celebrate World Soil Day because the soil gives these tiny creatures a home to live in, and they, in turn, provide the soil with nutrients. This symbiotic relationship results in a sustainable environment which seven billion people call home.

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History of World Soil Day

The International Union of Soil Sciences, in December 2002, proposed that December 5 should be World Soil Day. This day would signify the importance of soil in our ecosystem and the critical impacts which the destruction of soil has.

The selection of December 5 for celebrating the event happened because it coincided with the birth anniversary of H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He was the King of Thailand and played a huge role in the activism leading to the formation of World Soil Day.  

In December 2013, at the 68th United Nations Assembly, December 5 was finally officially declared as World Soil Day. The following year, 2014, marked the first official celebration of the event on December 5, 2014. 

Aim of World Soil Day

Despite the campaigning and spreading awareness about the importance of soil, barely any efforts happened to protect it. Soils have been seen as inferior resources, and negligence is shown by both the people and the governments of the world.

Unlike other natural resources, the degradation of soil is something that does not come to notice easily by the inexperienced eye. It is a slow, silent process, which takes its sweet time, but the effects can be disastrous. Destruction and loss of Acres of land or soil can happen due to carelessness.

World Soil Day aims to attain global attention and bring the effects to light to everyone. Without soil, the ever-growing population will remain underfed since plants won’t have any space to grow. World Soil Day demands that recognition and support for the management of soil along with sustainability. It aims for proper maintenance and care of soil all over the world.

Themes of World Soil Day

On December 52014, the first-ever official World Soil Day celebration took place. Soil experts, politicians, and many other high-profile personalities participated in the event. They gathered at the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) headquarters in Rome, Italy, to host a convention. The main agenda this year was to spread awareness to people outside of the soil community. 

The FAO secretariat spoke a few words during the beginning of the convention, which holds great value. “The soils community could contribute to the efforts of food security, hunger eradication, climate change adaptation, poverty reduction, and sustainable development.” 

The next year2015, was a very important year for the soil community. The theme for 2015’s World Soil Day (which was as a tradition celebrated on December 5 was “Healthy Soils for a Healthy Life.”. 

This year, the importance of soil for food security and the crucial environmental processes it performs was stressed upon. Soils play a huge role to ensure our wellbeing; they are an important contributor to nature and its children too. It prevents loss of biodiversity, loss of water, and especially the loss of plants. In 2015, World Soil Day was celebrated by more than 60,000 scientists who worked hard to spread soil knowledge. 

In 2016, the theme was “Soils & Pulses: Symbiosis for Life.” This time, more than seventy countries participated in the event worldwide, and many exciting new activities took place. The theme was called so because of the synergy between the previous year’s, and 2016 is the International Year of Pulses. 

A book sharing the same name as the theme “Soils & Pulses: Symbiosis for Life” was published by the FAO. It promoted ideas presented by innovative thinkers and scientists about managing the symbiosis between soil and pulses. 

Year 2017’s theme for World Soil Day was “Caring for the soils starts from the ground.” This year, for the first time, New York and Nairobi were cities of the official celebration, along with Rome. Some events were also organized in Santiago and Moscow. 

Another addition was the Global Soil Organic Carbon Map. The UN EA3 Resolution on managing soil pollution was adopted by 177 nations. 

Last year, 2020, saw the theme “Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity.” This time, World Soil Day gained even more attention and was celebrated in 105 countries. A whopping 780 events took place in total across all nations, and many major newspapers published articles about the event. An estimated 820 million people were accultured about the significance of December 5 through these newspapers. 

This, along with the involvement of many popular celebrities and business tycoons, resulted in the participation of more than 350 million people on social media alone on WSD. 2020’s World Soil Day is, to date, the biggest and most widely known WSD.

The themes of the year 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 are given below.

World Soil Day 2021

World Soil Day 2021 that was observed on 5th December had the theme of “Halt soil salinization, boost soil productivity.” FAO launched this campaign because the danger of soil salinization is gradually rising and is posing a threat to the food security and agricultural production. Salinization becomes destructive in arid and semi-arid regions as it reduces the ability of the soil to produce crops hence causing long-term injury to the region’s ecosystems.

People around the world organized various events to increase understanding about the need to fight soil salinization. These included learning workshops, neighborhood activities, and talks about policies to encourage sustainable ways to manage soil. The FAO also put out fresh data and reports to show how big the problem is and why we need to act.

The 2021 campaign pushed farmers, governments, and organizations to use better soil management practices. These included cutting down on harmful chemicals and making irrigation techniques better. Environmental groups, government agencies, and people who care about keeping this key natural resource safe joined in to mark the day​.

World Soil Day 2022

The loss of soil nutrients is a significant cause of soil degradation and a major international problem for food security and sustainability.

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The theme of World Soil Day 2022 was “Soils: Where food begins.” As soil is the ultimate natural supplier of the food we eat, we cannot survive without it.

The goals include encouraging people and communities to improve soil health and raising soil awareness among all to ensure healthy ecosystems and human well-being.

Activities for World Soil Day 2022:

The level of success achieved by World Soil Day depends directly on everyone’s involvement. For people who participate in the celebration, many engaging activities are hosted.

Soil Painting: As part of its outreach efforts, soil painting competitions were hosted on World Soil Day on December 5th, 2017. The theme was ‘Caring for the Planet starts from the Ground.’ In this contest, the participants displayed their extent of imagination in depicting how soils are crucial in sustainable development.

Children above the age of six were allowed to participate, and different age groups were formed for fair judgement of entries.

Black Soil Photography Contest: Black soils cover almost 7% of the earth’s surface. But due to pollution and degradation of soil, it may not be around for future generations! This competition aims to try to recognize and save black soil. Participants were told to post captivating photos of black soils which they had seen.

The photo contest “When Soils turn Black” was officially launched on the 16th of October 2017 and now takes place each year.

The contestants who win the photo contest receive soil-related gadgets and certificates. In addition, their picture gets published on the FAO website, i.e., www.fao.org.

You can take part in #WorldSoilDay and #Soils4Nutrition on social media to raise awareness.

World Soil Day 2023

The theme for World Soil Day 2023 was “Soil and Water: A Source of Life.” This theme highlighted the importance of healthy soil and water for life on Earth. Our ecosystems and our health depended on soil and water. Soil was where plants grew and was home to many tiny living things. The soil needed water to stay moist, grow, and support life. Together, they provided us with food to eat and beautiful nature. Soil and water were interconnected and required integrated management to ensure their sustainability. We needed to take care of them so they could keep supporting us.

Around the world, various events were organized in honor of World Soil Day 2023. Kenya, for example, celebrated World Soil Day with multiple organizers, including educational institutions and government agencies. It took place in Nairobi on January 5, 2023.

Also, the FAO coordinated contests and activities, such as the Glinka World Soil Prize and the King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award, to raise global awareness. The event offered educational materials and activities for kids, like soil experiments and painting.

World Soil Day 2024

World Soil Day happens on December 5, 2024. It aims to make people aware of how healthy soils matter for sustainable farming, food security, and ecosystems. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads this effort with many events. The main one is the official World Soil Day Ceremony from 12:30 to 14:00 CET. This event will have talks and presentations about soil health and how it affects our lives. The FAO wants people everywhere to join in. You can do this by setting up local events, talks, and activities to promote taking care of soil.

The 2024 theme will focus on today’s environmental issues even though the exact theme isn’t out yet. It’ll keep highlighting how soils play a key role to fight climate change, protect biodiversity, and ensure we have a sustainable future.

Just like previous years, we’ll see different events such as learning campaigns, community gardens, and workshops on composting. People who join in are asked to send their activities and pictures to the FAO. The FAO will then put all these efforts together and show them to the world.

Here is the endorsement of the World Soil Day 2024 theme:

  • “Soil; if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it”
  • “Digging deeper: Discovering and monitoring soils”

The focus of the World Soil Day 2024 is to stress the need to know and care for the soils. The rationale of the thinking is that if the quality of soil cannot be accurately measured, it cannot be properly monitored or conserved. The theme challenges us to go beyond the surface and work on our soils, to pay attention to what is hidden underneath. This way, it is possible to avoid their degradation and to maintain their steadiness for use in the generations to come.

How To Take Part In World Soil Day?

This can also be said as what can we do for World Soil Day? You can take part in an international day of soil in the following ways:

World Soil Day, 5 December.

  1. You can promote the logo of World Soil Day on social media so that more people get to know about the event.
  2. Share what you know with others. Hosting workshops and seminars is a great way of playing your part in World Soil Day.
  3. Be more creative! The official website of FAO appreciates any suggestions and new ideas from volunteers from any part of the world.
  4. Students can participate by planning a soil experiment with friends or with a teacher. The results of the experiment can be posted or directly sent to FAO.
  5. Students can participate in a soil pollution essay competition. In this way, they will also get crucial information about soil.

If you like this article on the international day of soil, please share it with your friends and family members to raise awareness among them.

One Comment

  1. SOIL DIVERSITY FOR SOIL PRODUCTIVITY:
    A variety of soils which differ in their physical, chemical and biological properties are mixed to promote soil diversity at a given place in order to promote transmigration of soils to sustain perfect integration of diverse types of soils across the world.
    Further STALL SOIL EROSION AND SUSTAIN LIFE across the world to drive out hunger not only of humans but of plants and animals as well.
    The programs of SOIL DEVELOPMENT need to be proactive to promote awareness among the people across the world.

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