For the celebration of the International Year of Soils, the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) kicked-off a photo-calendar contest with the scope of creating a photo-calendar for 2015 with the theme “Soils through Youth’s Eyes.”

By launching this photo contest, YPARD´s objective was to engage young people around the world in illustrating the importance of this key thematic area of FAO´s work, from their perspective.

Between November the 14th until December the 17th, many photos were received illustrating different landscapes in the world: the beauty of a Kosovar crop field in Autumn, green grass and plants coming out from a changing soil structure that is becoming increasingly infertile and dry in Kenya, a rice field during the sowing season in Mekong delta, Vietnam, etc.

Young profesional submitted photo entries that showed off what soils meant to them, and after the jury’s selection and users´ online voting on YPARD Facebook page, unfortunately only the following twelve winners photos were selected :

YPARD photo-calendar contest winners

January Winner: “Give soil a life, it will pay giving us a life,” by Anish Sapkota. The picture was taken in early 2014 at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Paklihawa Campus, Nepal. The whole world depends on the food and this is mostly grown on soils. Soil is that living part which aims to feed the entire world's population, and young people are the zealots who toil hard to feed the soil that will nourish the world.

February Winner: “Different crops”, by Mohammadreza Davari. The picture was taken in 2006 at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi, India. The picture above shows different crops planted in the same condition and soil. 

March Winner: “Same Soil,” by Mohammadreza Davari. The picture was taken in 2006 in Punjab State, India. The above picture shows an integrated farming system that includes grain crops, vegetables and trees. It indicates that we can cultivate different crops on the same soil to achieve biodiversity -flora and fauna macro and microorganisms-, as well as sustainable and economic production.

April Winner: “From Vicinity to Zenith,” by Rahul Archarya. The picture was taken in 2014 in Bhojard, India. Bhojard is a popular agricultural land of Bharatpur city. The above picture was taken at dusk. The tillage was done on this place previously and now wheat seeds are germinating, becoming green and tall.

May Winner: “Picture 1,” by Luke Smith. The picture was taken on May 2014 – World Food Day in Mayaro, Trinidad and Tobago. Photo is depicting the use of soil to grow pimento pepper seedlings by Agriworks4u. Though the soil is dry it can still sustain growth given the right preparation

June Winner: “A little soil for survival,” by Suhas Karkute. The picture was taken on November the 13^th, 2014 in the riverbed of Ganga River, in Basharatpur, India. The picture above shows a riverbed cultivation of cucurbits on the sand. Only a small layer of soil -around 10 cm and 3-5 feet below the sand level- is sufficient for a plant to grow and yield without any irrigation. That’s the power of soil.

July Winner: “Tillage 1,” by Longkai Yue. The picture was taken in August 2011 in Qiyang County, China. The picture above shows Chinese rice cultivation in a traditional way.

August Winner: “White-Fluffy Way of Decomposition,” by Eren Taskin. The picture was taken in November 2012 in Bari, Italy. Sometimes soil represents just a cycle of life under our feet and in the picture above it's a fungus that will soon decompose many things around it.

September Winner: “Learning hands playing with Soil,” by Prakash Paudel. Picture taken in November 2013 in Shantipur, Nepal. The picture above shows children of secondary level school learning agricultural practices with practical skills on the field. These children study agriculture subject as part of the technical education in Nepal.

October Winner: “Soil through Youth’s hand,” by Luca Piccin. The picture was taken on April the 30^th, 2013 in a mandala urban garden in Réunion Island. A fistful of soil and earthworms in a child's hand.

November Winner: “Green peppers and bed planting in Northern Ethiopia,” by Elise Monsieurs. The picture was taken in July the 29^th, 2013 in Gedam, Ethiopia. Green peppers are vulnerable to the heavy rains during the rainy season in Ethiopia for which they need extra care. All family members are working on the plot for weeding and bed planting. Latter is a technique for plant growth optimization in northern Ethiopia. 

December Winner: “Emerging seedling of Corn at Freeman farm, Missouri,” by Dinesh Panday. The picture was taken on June the 12^th, 2014 in Missouri, U.S.A. Seed is the primary source of hope for production and soil, which gives foundation to the plant growth.

Download YPARD photo-Calendar.pdf