Today, the world celebrates World Soil Day. This year’s theme is "Soils: Where Food Begins.” The campaign seeks to address expanding soil management concerns, raise awareness, and motivate societies to enhance soil health.

According to soil scientists, 52% of agricultural soils are already degraded. In other words, the soil that enriches and nourishes us is dying. That is a cause for concern as soil fulfills 95% of our food needs. Soil supplies 15 of the 18 naturally occurring chemical elements essential to plants.

The world population continues to soar and in order to meet the global food demand in 2050, agricultural production will have to increase by 60 percent. Sustainable soil management could produce up to 58 percent more food.

How do we save soil from extinction? The need of the hour is to raise our voice for the soil so that the governments of the world take notice and frame necessary policies for the regeneration of soil. Soil can be regenerated by increasing the organic content as much as possible. Soil is a living entity and comprises millions of microbes and tiny creatures which are largely not visible to our naked eye. This living soil feeds on organic content like dead leaves or animal waste that helps it to thrive and get enriched. 

The green revolution and the need to produce crops on a large scale to feed the Earth’s growing population have led to the rampant use of chemical fertilizers and insecticides. This has gradually transformed the soil into sand and ripped the soil off its organic content and richness. All we need to do to increase the organic content of the soil is to keep the soil covered with dead leaves and animal /plant waste.

By addressing the growing challenges in soil management, raising soil awareness, and enticing societies to improve soil health, World Soil Day 2022(#WorldSoilDay) and its campaign "Soils: Where food begins" seek to increase awareness of the significance of maintaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being.

We need to save our soil now to prevent an impending catastrophe. Join savesoil.org and play a part in this phenomenal global movement to save soil for future generations.