Infographics
Soil, an essential ingredient to healthy food and nutrition
Our soils are by nature linked to the micronutrient content of our food production. The poster shows how to reverse the increasing trend of nutrient depleted soil by adopting sustainable soil management practices.
Other languages: Turkish
Soils store and filter water - Improving food security and our resilience to floods and droughts
Functional soils play a key role in the supply of clean water and resilience to floods and droughts.
Soils help to combat and adapt to climate change
Soils help to combat and adapt to climate change by playing a key role in the carbon cycle.
Our soils under threat
Soils are under increasing pressure of intensification and competing uses for cropping, forestry, pasture and urbanization.
Soils are the foundation for vegetation
Healthy soils are crucial for ensuring the continued growth of natural and managed vegetation, providing feed, fibre, fuel, medicinal products and other ecosystem services such as climate regulation and oxygen production. Soils and vegetation have a reciprocal relationship.
Where Food Begins
Healthy soils are critical for global food production, but we are not paying enough attention to this important "silent ally," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said on the eve of World Soil Day, celebrated on 5 December.
Soils and Biodiversity
Soils host a quarter of our planet's biodiversity.
Soil is one of nature's most complex ecosystems: it contains a myriad of organisms which interact and contribute to the global cycles that make all life possible.
Other languages: Hungarian
How soil is formed
This infographic illustrates how soil is formed.
Soil functions
Soils deliver ecosystem services that enable life on Earth.
Other languages: Finnish | Portuguese | Hungarian | Swedish | Dutch
Healthy Soils are the Basis for Healthy Food Production
Healthy soils are the foundation of the food system. Our soils are the basis for agriculture and the medium in which nearly all food-producing plants grow. Healthy soils produce healthy crops that in turn nourish people and animals. Indeed, soil quality is directly linked to food quality and quantity.
Soil is a non-renewable resource. Its preservation is essential for food security and our sustainable future
Soil is a finite resource, meaning its loss and degradation is not recoverable within a human lifespan. As a core component of land resources, agricultural development and ecological sustainability, it is the basis for food, feed, fuel and fibre production and for many critical ecosystem services. It is therefore a highly valuable natural resource, yet it is often overlooked.
International Year of Soils 2015: Healthy soils for a healthy life
Our soils are in danger because of expanding cities, deforestation, unsustainable land use and management practices, pollution, overgrazing and climate change. The current rate of soil degradation threatens the capacity to meet the needs of future generations.