Departments collaborate to observe World Soil Day in Khar village
Khar, December 5 (MTNews): In commemoration of World Soil Day under the theme “Soils: Where food begins”, the Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Mokokchung and KVK Mokokchung along with Agriculture department and Khar villagers observed World Soil Day today at Khar village under Mokokchung district.
The program was chaired by Senior Scientist & Head, Dr Keviletsu Khate KVK Mokokchung and as per the direction from ATARI, he also read out the messages of AM and DG, ICAR to the house.
Dr Khate while conveying welcome speech briefed the participants on the significance of observing World Soil Day and how it aims to create awareness on the importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being. He also addressed the growing challenges in soil management, increasing soil awareness and encouraged the societies to improve soil health.
The keynote address on the theme: “Soils: Where food begins” was delivered by the District Soil Conservation Officer, Ruokuosietuo where he briefed how World Soil Day is observed annually on December 5 ever since it was recommended by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) in 2002 as a means to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil.
He also stressed on the importance of soil stating that it is one of the earth’s most important natural resources and urged for the protection and conservation for achieving overall sustainability and productivity.
“Over the years, soil degradation is posing a serious threat to food security and environment quality that is caused by unsustainable agricultural practices, rapid urbanization, industrialization, and commercial pollution, overgrazing and long –term climate changes,” he explained.
He further explained how easy it is to destroy soil and its fertility within a short period of time but very difficult to regain them back to normal.
“It takes 200-400 years to form 1cm of soil,” he said, stating that it has become imperative for all mankind to understand the importance of soil and take as individual and social responsibility to nurture them.
“Protection and conservation of natural resources particularly the soil resource is of paramount importance for achieving overall sustainability and productivity as soil being the only media from where food begins,” he stated.
The technical session on the topic of making compost by different methods in the farmers field was shared by Imtisenla ACTO, KVK Mokokchung while Opangtemsu, SCA demonstrated soil sampling and geo-tagging.
Topic on importance of soil testing and Soil Health Card and proper management of soil with the use of organic manures and biofertilizers was delivered by Yimkum Kichu, AO, Agriculture department, Mokokchung.
Presentation on the importance of Agromet in the perspective of agriculture was delivered by N. Walling, SMS, Agromet, KVK Mokokchung.
The Khar village Council Chairman Sashikaba exhorted the departments for contributing in making them understand the importance of soil and World Soil Day.
Distribution of organic manures and biofertilizers to the villagers and an interactive session between the farmers and the department officials was also a part of the program and concluded with vote of thanks from Moainla T.O, KVK Mokokchung.
Altogether 51 farmers, 5 village council members and 8 department officials participated in the program.