Highlights archive
Rome – In conjunction with the 12th Plenary Assembly of the Global Soil Partnership, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu opened an exhibition that captures how policy action and collaboration amongst actors for healthy soils has manifested in success stories across Thailand and countries.
The “Journey to success: from dirt to living soils” exhibit, co-organized by FAO’s Global Soil Partnership and the Kingdom of Thailand showcases sustainable soil management practices that are locally adapted and community tailored.
Objective is improving and maintaining health of at least 50 percent of world's soils by 2030; FAO Director-General calls for political will, cooperation and investment
Bolstering soil health and achieving land degradation neutrality has taken a prominent place in Uzbekistan national priorities. Therefore the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its Global Soil Partnership (GSP), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture of Uzbekistan, has set in motion efforts to restore soil health and train farmers in sustainable soil management.
It is estimated that around half of the world’s obsolete pesticides are in the former Soviet Union, with a large portion still concentrated in Central Asia. Weaknesses in the capacity of responsible institutions and stakeholders to effectively manage pesticides and associated wastes throughout their life-cycle, coupled with gaps in the legal and regulatory framework have led to the substantial stockpiling of obsolete pesticides in the region. In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, soils in many agricultural areas are contaminated beyond acceptable human health levels by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as lindane, endosulfan and Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), posing serious environmental and human health risks. Urgent remediation measures are imperative to address these pressing concerns.
With the aim of strengthening sustainable soil management (SSM) practices in Southeast Asia, a recent mission to Thailand from 19 to 22 February 2024 yielded promising outcomes. Led by the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) as part of the Global Soil Doctors Programme (GSDP) and with the support of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAORAP), the mission focused on enhancing collaboration with the Thai Volunteer Soil Doctors programme, led by the Land Development Department (LDD) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.