Global Soil Conference 2024 And Soil In India:
The Global Soil Conference (GSC) 2024 was held in New Delhi, highlighting the importance of soil health for food security, climate change mitigation, and ecosystem services.
- The GSC 2024, organised by the Indian Society of Soil Science (ISSS) in collaboration with the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), aims to address challenges in sustainable soil/resource management.
- The event aimed to foster a global dialogue on how caring for soils can drive sustainability across various sectors.
- Theme: Caring Soils Beyond Food Security: Climate change mitigation & Ecosystem Services.
- Soil health was recognized as a pressing issue, with soil degradation affecting productivity and posing a threat to global food security.
- Around 30% of India’s soil is reportedly compromised due to erosion, salinity, pollution, and loss of organic carbon.
- The conference underscored the importance of international cooperation in tackling soil erosion, which aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 15 (SDG 15) of the United Nations.
- SDG 15 aims to protect, restore, and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, manage forests sustainably, combat desertification, halt land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.
