World Soil Day is celebrated on 5th December since 2014 with 2025 theme, “Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities,” focusing on the importance of urban soil health and its role in making cities more resilient, sustainable and livable. We look at nature and see all the beauty and the prosperity around us. While many people recognize that clean air and water are signs of a healthy ecosystem, most of us do not realize that a critical part of environment is right beneath our feet. The soil plays an important role in maintaining a clean environment by serving as a natural filtration and purification system.
Our planet’s survival depends on the precious link between soil and water. The symbiotic relationship between soil and water provide the foundation for ecosystem services, food security and human well-being. Soil produces a staggering 95% of humanity’s food supply, by growing both the crops we eat and for the livestock. Up to 58% more food could be produced through sustainable soil management. In the world today, 33% of soils are degraded.
Soils supply 15 of the 18 naturally occurring chemical elements essential to plants. Healthy soils produce nutrient-dense crops, directly impacting human nutrition and reducing micronutrient deficiencies. Soil acts as a natural filter, purifying groundwater and managing water availability for all life forms. One cubic meter of healthy soil can retain over 250 liters of water. Improper soil and water management practices affect soil fertility, soil erosion, soil biodiversity and water quality and quantity.
There are more living organisms in a tablespoon of soil than people on Earth. Soil hosts 59% of Earth’s species, making it one of the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Earth’s outer layer -from the top vegetation canopy to the strata of soils and layers of underground material – helps soak up and purify water by extracting excess nutrients, heavy metals and other impurities. Without groundwater, there is no clean water. Thus, beneath the surface lies the foundation of our sustainability.
Despite being everywhere around us – in fields and gardens and beneath our feet – soil is often taken for granted. Yet in several fascinating ways, this miraculous substance holds the key to life on Earth. It helps produce our food, filters and purifies air & water, reduces flooding, regulates the atmosphere and plays a crucial role in driving the carbon and nitrogen cycles. It is also one of the most bio-diverse habitats on the Earth.
Soils are fundamental to life but human pressures on soil are reaching on critical limits. Careful soil management is the lever for climate regulation and a pathway for safeguarding ecosystem services. Soil is one of the integral parts of our lives and biodiversity. 2 billion people worldwide suffer from lack of micronutrients, known as hidden hunger. Soil provides us with necessary nutrients. Soil is the bed for growth of food items and home to diverse species.
Soil is more than just dirt – the state of our soils impacts everything on human health and climate change. Food systems today are being viewed through a narrow and distorting lens called per-hectare-productivity which impacted the soil. According to FAO, world’s topsoil could be completely eroded within the next 60 years if current soil degradation rates continue.
Soil is one of the most ubiquitous – and underappreciated – substances on Earth. Soil plays a vital role in climate control. Most people are already aware of the importance of forests and trees in reducing CO2 in the atmosphere. But soil stores carbon, three times the amount in the atmosphere and twice contained in all plants and trees. Both urban and rural soils moderate local temperatures, reducing heat island effects in cities.
Soil is Earth’s skin: thin and delicate but played an irreplaceable role in preserving the health and Eco-system and the global biosphere as a whole. Soil is one of the most underrated and little understood wonders on our fragile planet.
Plants not only extract CO2 from the atmosphere but store in the soil in the form of plant residues and humus. However, when soil becomes damaged or degraded, it again releases back into the atmosphere, thereby accelerating – rather than decelerating – the climate change.
Almost 25% of animal species on Earth live underground, while 40% of organisms in terrestrial ecosystems are associated with soil at some points during their lifecycles. Healthy soils provide habitats that support thousands of different species of fungi, bacteria and invertebrates, which then work in combination to drive the Earth’s carbon, nitrogen and water cycles, thereby creating the nutrients and food we need to survive.
Many life-saving drugs and vaccines are discovered from soil which include penicillin to bleomycin and many others. Healthy soils enable plants to produce helpful chemicals such as antioxidants which protect them from pests and other external threats. When humans eat these plants, the antioxidants boost our immune systems and hormone regulation. Thus, healthy soil boosts to our healthy body.
When we come to know that soil is vital for our life, most of our soils might have been irreparably damaged and vulnerable. There are multiple human-made threats to soil health. These include deforestation, urbanization, agricultural intensification, soil compaction, acidification, salinization, pollution, landslides, wildfires and soil erosion. Healthy soils cannot be quickly or easily replenished. It can take up to 1000 years to produce just 2-3 cm of healthy soil.
Since the Green Revolution, an estimated 135 billion tons of soil has been lost. Now, we need sustainable soil management which include minimum tillage, regular crop rotation, sustainable grazing, organic addition and mixed cropping to improve soil health. These practices also preserve soil biodiversity, improve fertility and contribute to carbon sequestration, playing a crucial role to keep the planet alive.
(Dr. N. Munal Meitei) Environmentalist, presently working as DFO/Chandel
