{"id":18713,"date":"2021-12-02T16:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T16:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/?p=18713"},"modified":"2021-12-02T18:12:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T18:12:28","slug":"world-soil-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/world-soil-day\/","title":{"rendered":"World Soil Day 2021: Soil Salinization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p><p>As we celebrate World Soil Day on Sunday, 5th December 2021, we are reminded of the vital role that soil has to play in our survival on planet earth.<\/p>\n<p>World Soil Day 2021 highlights the issue of soil salinization around the world. Salts are naturally present in soils, but factors &#8211; primarily poorly designed irrigation schemes &#8211; can increase the amount of salt in soils. This process is called salinization, and it breaks down soils and reduces the ability of soil to grow food.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Soil salinization is a major threat to our ecosystems, and a global threat to agricultural production, food security and sustainability &#8211; particularly in tropical and arid\/semi arid areas. Already, huge parts of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the USA are no longer suitable for agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The theme of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/observances\/world-soil-day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> World Soil Day 2021<\/a> is &#8216;Halt soil salinization &#8211; boost soil productivity. The day aims to highlight the importance of our soils to our ecosystems and wellbeing, and to encourage societies to continue to work to improve soil health.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a few more facts on soil for World Soil Day 2021:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Soil continues to degrade at rates that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO) predict could lead to a loss of all topsoil, within 60 years.<\/li>\n<li>Every year, soil salinization removes approximately 1.5 million hectares of farmland per year from agricultural production.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is estimated that 8.7% of the planet is covered by salt-affected soil.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s why Self Help Africa promotes and trains and supports hundreds of thousands of farming households annually to carefully manage and protect this precious resource. It&#8217;s why we promote crop rotation, natural composting, application of manures and natural fertilisers and planting trees on the land. It&#8217;s also why we encourage growing complimentary crops, and why we promote a broad range of &#8216;climate smart&#8217; farming techniques including zero tillage and the retention of ground cover where crops are being grown.<\/p><p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celebrate International Soil Day &#8211; our food depends on it!<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/world-soil-day\/\"> Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[637],"tags":[1006,1005,1007,65,214,1004],"class_list":["post-18713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-crop-production","tag-december-5th","tag-fertility","tag-self-help-africa","tag-sustainability","tag-world-soil-day"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin 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