March 29, 2024 15:04 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
PM Modi to kickstart BJP's Lok Sabha poll campaign from Meerut | Kangana Ranaut in Mandi: 'Don't think I am a heroine, consider me as your sister and daughter' | Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav demand high-level probe into Mukhtar Ansari's death | PM Modi has mastered art of manipulating democracy, hurting Constitution: Mallikarjun Kharge | Mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari dies of cardiac arrest at 63
UN official stresses link between healthy soils, sustainable development

UN official stresses link between healthy soils, sustainable development

India Blooms News Service | | 21 Apr 2015, 09:04 am
New York, Apr 21 (IBNS): As Global Soil Week began in Berlin on Monday, a United Nations agricultural agency official used his opening address to stress the significance of healthy soils to global food production and the importance of prioritizing soil health in public policy.

“If humanity’s overarching need for food security and nutrition, climate change mitigation and sustainable development is to be met, soil resources have to be given the global attention they deserve,” said Moujahed Achouri, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Land and Water Division.

“Soils are essential for achieving food security and nutrition and have the potential to help mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.”

In addition to sustaining 95 per cent of food production, soils host more than a quarter of the planet’s biodiversity, are a major source of pharmaceuticals, and play a critical role in the carbon cycle, Achouri added.

He also pointed to an “alarming” level of soil degradation – estimated at 33 percent globally – saying the added pressures put on soils are reaching critical limits, with the potential to threaten food security and send many people into poverty.

Global Soil Week, which started in Berlin brings together more than 550 participants from 78 countries working on sustainable soil management and land governance, and the FAO used the opportunity to call on the international soil community and policy makers to work together to reduce soil degradation and restore already degraded land because of the contribution that sustainable soil management can make to production of more and healthier food.

Global Soil Week 2015 coincides with the International Year of Soils, which aims to raise awareness about often-unrecognized benefits of soils to human health and sustainable development, and this year, the Week’s focus is on the need for including soil issues in the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) that are currently being discussed.

Photo: FAO/Olivier Asselin

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.