World Soil Day is celebrated on December 5th every year. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nation began celebrating this day to raise awareness regarding the importance of soil to life.
The theme for this year is, “Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity.” According to the FAO, this theme was selected to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being by addressing the growing challenges in soil management, fighting soil biodiversity loss, increasing soil awareness and encouraging governments, organizations, communities and individuals around the world to commit to proactively improving soil health.
Deputy Chief Agricultural Officer Renato Gumbs stated that St. Vincent and the Grenadines is plagued by similar challenges including soil loss and soil pollution. He further noted that to many, we are blessed by some of the best soils in the world but it may not remain that way if we don’t make a deliberate effort to conserve our soils.
