World Soil Day

Healthy Soils for healthy Cities. We celebrate World Soil Day (WSD) annually on 5 December to raise global awareness about the role soils play in agricultural development, ecosystem functions and food security. Explore the events nearby you: Worldwide events held in celebration of the World Soil Day 2025. EVENTS : List of events 95% of our food comes from soils.33% of soils are degraded. It can take up to 1 000 years to produce just 2-3 cm of soil. Soils supply 15 of the 18 naturally occurring chemical elements essential to plants.There are more living organisms in a tablespoon of soil than people on Earth. 2 billion people worldwide suffer from lack of micronutrients, known as hidden hunger. Up to 58% more food could be produced through sustainable soil management. Soil is home to nearly 59% of Earth’s species. Campaign materials Social Media Cards  Find t he logo in your language ! Don’t see your language? Let us know so we can add it Campaign materials Endorsed by the Food and A...

 The theme for 2025, “ Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities ”, focuses on the role of soils in cities and the challenges posed by soil sealing and urbanization. With two-thirds of the world’s population expected to live in cities by 2050, soils are the foundation of sustainable and resilient cities.

  Healthy soils for healthy cities. Healthy soils are the foundation of life on Earth. Each year on 5 December, World Soil Day (WSD) celebrates soils and raises awareness of their importance for sustainable agrifood systems, climate action, biodiversity, and human well-being. The theme for 2025, “Healthy soils for healthy cities”, focuses on the role of soils in cities and the challenges posed by soil sealing and urbanization. With two-thirds of the world’s population expected to live in cities by 2050, soils are the foundations of sustainable and resilient cities. World Soil Day 2025 is a call to action! It invites policymakers, scientists, city leaders, civil society, and citizens everywhere to reimagine urban spaces through their soils, ensuring that people and nature can thrive together in healthy green cities. Draft agenda Time (CET)Programme 10:00 – 10:05 Welcome and Introduction Ms Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General, FAO 10:05 – 10:35 High-level Opening Dr. QU Dongyu, Dir...

  The objective of this protocol is to provide a framework, based on a set of indicators, for government officials, NGOs, and other stakeholders involved in development projects, to determine if implemented soil management practices are sustainable and in line with the definition of Sustainable Soil Management (SSM) included in the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSM) (FAO, 2017). This protocol and its indicators, parameters, and methods should be regularly revised and updated according to the evolution of soil sciences and the results obtained during its use in the field, reflecting local, national and regional realities. The measurement of recommended indicators provides an evaluation of a soil’s ability to maintain prioritized ecosystem services, and therefore improve farmers’ productivity and income in a sustainable manner. This document is built on existing work of the FAO’s Global Soil Partnership (GSP): the revised World Soil Charter (WSC) (FAO, 2015...

  Humankind is facing tremendous challenges in agriculture: the climate is changing, the global population is growing quickly, cities are expanding, diets are undergoing major shifts – and soils are becoming increasingly degraded. In this fast-changing world, and given the urgent need to eliminate hunger and ensure food security and nutrition, understanding and attaining sustainable soil management has never been more important. Indeed, the Sustainable Development Goals identify the need to restore degraded soils and improve soil health. There is widespread agreement that we must nurture and unlock the full potential of soils, so as to be able to not only support food production but also to store and supply more clean water, maintain biodiversity, sequester carbon and increase resilience in a changing climate. This is a goal that requires the universal implementation of sustainable soil management. Soils are the foundation of food production and many essential ecosystem services. I...

  The goal of the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) in this first Status of the World’s Soil Resources report is to make clear the essential connections between human well-being and the soil.  The report provides a benchmark against which our collective progress to conserve this essential resource can be measured. The report synthesizes the work of some 200 soil scientists from 60 countries. It provides a global perspective on the current state of the soil, its role in providing ecosystem services, and the threats to its continued contribution to these services. The specific threats considered in the report are soil erosion, compaction, acidification, contamination, sealing, salinization, waterlogging, nutrient imbalance (e.g. both nutrient deficiency and nutrient excess), and losses of soil organic carbon (SOC) and of biodiversity. While there is cause for optimism in some regions, the overwhelming conclusion from the report is that the majority of the world’...

  Healthy soils are a basic prerequisite to meeting varied needs for food, biomass (energy), fiber, fodder, and other products, and to ensuring the provision of essential ecosystem services in all regions of the world. However, humankind is facing unprecedented pressures on soil resources. In particular, soil degradation of various types including sealing due to fast urbanization are taking their heavy toll, threatening food security and ecological balance. With the Sustainable Development Goals currently under consideration and soon to be implemented, it is fundamental to ensure sustainable management of soils in order to make these goals a reality. Fortunately, there is recognition of the need to act more forcefully at all levels, nationally, regionally and internationally in order to reverse alarming trends and to maintain the healthy soils required for feeding growing populations . Most symbolically, the General Assembly of the United Nations has formally endorsed the celebrati...

   KEY ROLE OF SOIL Help to combat and adapt to climate change by storing carbon and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

  KEY ROLE OF SOIL: Host a quarter of the planet's biodiversity and contribute to the global cycles that make all life possible.

  KEY ROLE OF SOIL: Minimize surface evaporation and maximize water use efficiency and productivity

  KEY ROLE OF SOIL: Capture and store water for crops.

  Soils provide one of the largest reservoirs of biodiversity on earth, and soil organisms play key roles in the delivery of many ecosystems services. Little is known about the degree of biodiversity required to maintain core soil functions, but new tools for biochemical techniques and DNA analysis suggest significant progress in this area is possible. • Monitoring programs for soil biodiversity, including biological indicators (e.g. community ecotoxicology) and in-situ early warning signals, should be undertaken; • Soil organic matter levels supporting soil biodiversity should be maintained or enhanced through the provision of sufficient vegetative cover (e.g. cover crops, multiple crops), optimal nutrient additions, addition of diverse organic amendments, minimizing soil disturbance, avoiding salinization, and maintaining or restoring vegetation such as hedgerows and shelterbelts; • The authorization and use of pesticides in agricultural systems should be based on the recommendat...

KEY ROLE OF SOIL: Provide water infiltration through soil, trapping pollutants and preventing them from leaching into the groundwater.

KEY ROLE OF SOIL: Provide fibre, fuel, medicinal products and other ecosystem services.

  Soil erosion is the displacement of the upper layer of soil and can be caused by wind, water or anthropogenic activities such as soil tillage. It can be measured in the field, by Observing visible evidence of soil loss , in complement to the measure of topsoil soil organic matter. In identified cases of soil erosion , it is recommended to implement different assessment methods, such as the USLE method, the synthesis of satellite imagery and its metadata, or direct measurement of erosion in gullies, rills, sheet wash, landslides using erosion pins, sediment yield downhill or in drains using Gerlach boxes, or undercutting of the soils around trees and fence-lines.

   Soil Salinity can be a natural phenomenon (reflecting the geological/ lithological/climatic conditions of the area, or proximity to a coastal marine environment), or the result of anthropogenic activities such as the use of salt-rich water for irrigation or the adverse impacts of poorly managed irrigation in dry regions . Halophytic plants, white scabs, an oily appearance or lack of plant growth are all signs of salinity in the field. Salinity can be estimated using electrical conductivity (EC).

  Soil biological diversity reflects the variability among living organisms including a myriad of organisms not visible to the naked eye, such as microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, fungi, protozoa) and meso-fauna (e.g., nematodes, acari and springtails), as well as the more familiar macro-fauna (e.g. earthworms, ants and termites). The most recommended methods for soil biodiversity include the counting and identification of macro and mesoorganisms by a trained person, following extractions in the laboratory (e.g., Berlese funnel, Baermann funnel or pitfall traps in the field). A regular genomic analysis biodiversity to be assessed more accurately at the microbial level. It is recommended to associate at least one of these methods with the respiration rate mentioned in the recommended indicators in order to better interpret the values obtained.

  Soil pH (acidity and alkalinity) gives an important indication of plant nutrient availability, and different crops thrive at different pH values. Soil pHmay change in response to management activities such as liming, fertilizeraddition, irrigation that leads to salt accumulation, and some forms of soil pollution. Soil pH may be measured in the field with simple indicators, or with standard laboratory measurements. It is relatively cheap, quick, and easy to determine. Amending a low (acidic) pH can lead to greatly improved crop yields.

  Water capacity refers to the water held in the soil between its field capacity and permanent wilting point. It represents the Ecosystem service of regulating water quality and availability in the landscape (easily available water is held between -10 and -200 kPa). This parameter can also help assess the physical condition of a soil (porosity and structure) as wateravailability is highly dependent on it.

  Field parameters for evaluation of soil physical properties can be a good complement to the recommended set of indicators and proposed parameters.  8) Soil infiltration rate is a measure of how fast water enters the soil under non-saturated conditions. Water entering too slowly can reflect ponding conditions, soil compaction or erosion risk (surface runoff). 9) Soil penetration resistance can be useful in estimating soil compaction. It gives an indication of root-impeding layers in the soil and can be used to compare relative strengths among similar soil types. Penetration resistance can also be used to identify hardpans, zones of compaction, or dense soil layers.