World Soil Day today

The World Soil Day-2020 is being observed in the country as elsewhere across the globe today (Saturday) highlighting the importance of taking care of soil and conserving soil biodiversity.

The theme of this year’s day is ‘Keep Soil Alive, Protect Soil Biodiversity’. The World Soil Day is held annually on 5 December as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and advocate for the sustainable management of soil resources.

On the eve of the day, President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have issued separate messages greeting all concerned and wishing all programmes of the day a success.

In his message, President Abdul Hamid said soil is the habitat of about one-fourth of the world’s biodiversity.

“Soil biodiversity is an essential component of healthy soil. Soil biodiversity is the ecology of all living things including, plants, animals and microorganisms living in the soil and their combination,” he said.

The President said different types of microorganisms, fungi, protozoa living in the soil play an important role in protecting the health of the soil.
At present, he said, the loss of soil biodiversity is a matter of concern as it is reducing the fertility of the soil.

In her message, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said continuing sustainable agricultural production and protecting soil biodiversity are major challenges in the changing global climate situation.

“We have made great achievement in agriculture. Even, in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladesh’s agriculture has made a significant contribution to the country’s food security,” she added.

Noting that high-yielding and hybrid varieties have been added to modern agriculrure, the premier said, cropping intensity has increased several times, while the pressure on the soil is constantly increasing in order to produce more crops.