Soil is often known as the abbreviated form of:

S=Surface

O=organic Matter

I= Inorganic matter

L=Living organism/Life

Soil is very important for us from every point of view and has very important and special position in agriculture as it provides base for the plant, acts as the source of nutrient and is habitat to many organism, it absorbs all those heavy materials and is the natural recycling machine. In fact its very great assets to innumerable organism including human beigns.

Despite owing so much debt, What have we done to our soil, The base of our life? Used haphazardly those pesticides, herbicides, weedicides and fertilizer to get those luscious fruits/vegetables, plotted all those land to make concrete jungle and deteriorate the condition of the soil making it go from bad to worse?

That?s what we have done till date and what we will continue to do so unless new and holistic approaches are not found out and more importantly implemented as quickly as possible. And the whole responsibilities rely on those soil scientists (most of whom are agriculturalist) and the way they share their knowledge with other fields like biological scientist, social scientist, economist and environmental scientist. (This is with the belief that our course and life are totally interrelated and everyone?s participation is must)

To make U-turn to existing situation, to make us know about the importance of Soil in presence context and celebrate ?World Soil Day?on 5^th December a workshop was jointly organized by ?Faculty of Soil Science and Agri-enginnering? of both Tribhuvan University and Agriculture and Forestry University(where I study) at Rampur College (AFU). We were happy to get opportunity to participate in the workshop where there was the presence of prominent soil Scientist of our country including the oldest Nepali Soil Scientist, farmers and students like us.

We had heavy discussion about soil, its importance both aesthetic and in scientific terms, organic farming, conservation agriculture and sustainable agriculture, pros and cons of using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and weedicides, methods of tillage, increasing urbanization and unplanned city expansion, status of soil research in the country and world. Senior lecturers, Readers, Professors and Scientist further showed us their slide. The way they talked about using organic farming and Good Agriculture Practices, conservation agriculture (CA) and Sustainable Agriculture(SA) was quite intimidating. (I will post in detail about these practices which are important from nutritional, ecological and social point of view in my upcoming reports)

We were elated  to see Soil Scientist considering about conservation of environment in their every debate. Every time they spoke, they didn't miss about eco-friendly agriculture practices. This is very encouraging and is positive sign as well.

 Prominent organic farmer (who has been following the suits for more than 30 years) Chandra Prasad Adhikari shared history of success and struggles he had to go through before making his farm fully organic.He had amazing and very encouraging story to share with us and one thing that struck in my mind was ? Long time we used to have everything organic. Tomatoes tasted good, cucumber was full of nutrient and we used to recommend fruits for sick people. But now, Tomatoes only looks good, cucumber doesn?t get decayed and we become sick eating fruits.? Quite thoughtful.

Also, we came to know about IUSS( International Union of Soil Science), a common global  union of soil scientist and its history as well.

We were happy to know UN celebrating 2015 as the ?International Year of Soils?.

Yes, Eco-generation members, 2015 is the ?Internatioal Year of Soils?. So let?s celebrate it, give the full justice to our soil from our side. If we can?t improve it then at least let?s not destroy. Soil is not renewable source( at least for generation as it takes more than 20 years to revitalize it and takes millions of years to make it).

Happy World Soil Day and Happy International Volunteers Day as well.