World Soil Day KVK, Wyra on 05-12-2021

World Soil Day (WSD) is held every year on 5th December to focus interest on the need for focussing on soil health with sustainable management of soil resources in honour of H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand who was one of the main protagonists of this initiative. Along with him, International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and FAO in 2002 decided to celebrate WSD as a global awareness raising stage. The FAO Conference unanimously endorsed World Soil Day in June 2013 and requested its official adoption at the 68th UN General Assembly. In December 2013, the UN General Assembly responded by designating 5th December 2014 as the first official World Soil Day. Each year a different theme is given and the theme of World Soil Day 2021 as per FAO movement is “Halt soil salinization, boost soil productivity”. This campaign aims to encourage people around the world fight loss of soil degradation due to salinization and improve the soil productivity as the ever-burgeoning population is placing burden on agriculture and causing the use of forests, grasslands and other carbon sinks for agriculture thereby increasing the carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. KVK, Wyra celebrated World Soil Day with 58 farmers and 16 students on 05.12.2021 along with 5 KVK scientists. Dr. J. Hemantha Kumar spoke about the importance to adopt environment friendly agricultural practices for effective fertiliser usage with for boosted crop efficiency and at the same time preserve soil healthiness. Dr. K. Ravi Kumar discussed about adverse effects of unwanted use of fertilisers and impact on global warming. Dr. Jessie Suneetha W spoke on need for decreasing single use plastics and encouraging the use of biodegradable counterparts, waste decomposing, careful disposal of perilous waste along with limiting the use of personal care products and substituting them with eco-friendly ones. Dr. V. Chaitanya spoke of vegetable crops that can be grown for soil health and during current yasangi. Mr. D. Nagaraju discussed about need for testing of the soils during lean period for better results during crop time. Farmers were provided with soil cards on this occasion. The students debated on the need for improving soil health as the present scenario looks quite bleak with indiscriminate use of fertilisers, erratic weather conditions and unprecedented pests. Mrs. P.S.M Phanisri proposed vote of thanks on this occasion.