Improper water management, including insufficient supply and poor quality drainage systems, are contributing to excessive soil salinization – a problem that threatens global food security, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Although soils are essential for human well-being and the sustainability of life on the planet, they are threatened on all continents by natural erosion, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on World Soil Day, calling for their protection.
Healthy soil “enables” life on earth and is one of the biggest bulwarks against climate change, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
About a third of the world’s soil has been degraded; the impacts of which range from food shortages and drought, to landslides and floods.
Soil degradation particularly affects subsistence farmers, according to FAO soil international consultant Lucrezia Caon, speaking ahead of World Soil Day, which falls on 5 December.