World Soil Day: Recognising the Ground Beneath Us
Every year on December 5th, World Soil Day (WSD) is celebrated to highlight the critical role that healthy soils play in sustaining life on Earth. This global initiative promotes awareness of soil’s essential contribution to food security, sustainable agriculture, and environmental health while advocating for the responsible management of this invaluable resource.
In this blog, we will cover the history of World Soil Day, its significance, and how initiatives like STELAR contribute to sustainable soil management.
A Global Effort for Soil Advocacy
The establishment of World Soil Day reflects years of dedication to soil conservation. In 2002, the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) proposed the idea of an international day to honor soil’s significance. With leadership from the Kingdom of Thailand and support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the initiative gained momentum.
In June 2013, the FAO Conference unanimously endorsed World Soil Day, paving the way for global recognition. The following December, the UN General Assembly formally designated December 5, 2014, as the first official World Soil Day.
World Soil Day 2024: Caring for soils: measure, monitor, manage
This year, the theme emphasises the need for accurate soil data and information to guide sustainable soil management. The campaign underscores the importance of understanding soil characteristics to make informed decisions that secure food supplies and protect the environment for future generations.
However, our connection with soil goes deeper than data. Over 95% of our food comes from soils, yet they are increasingly degraded by climate change and human activity. Erosion disrupts the delicate balance of ecosystems, reducing water absorption, removing vital nutrients from the soil, and ultimately compromising the quality of the food we grow.
By adopting sustainable soil management practices, such as minimum tillage, crop rotation, adding organic matter, and cover cropping, we can restore soil health. These practices enhance water retention, combat erosion, improve fertility, and contribute to carbon sequestration, positioning soil as a powerful ally in the fight against climate change.
Studies suggest that up to 58% more food could be produced globally through sustainable soil management – a transformative impact on both food security and environmental health.
These strategies align closely with this year’s theme, reinforcing the importance of thoughtful measurement, monitoring, and management as we work to safeguard our soils for future generations.
Precision Farming: The Key to Accurate Soil Management
The path to acquiring accurate soil data lies in precision farming, which offers innovative solutions to tackle soil degradation by leveraging advanced technologies like soil sensors and IoT (Internet of Things). These tools enable farmers to gain real-time insights into soil conditions, including moisture levels, nutrient availability, and pH balance.
By providing precise data, soil sensors empower farmers to adopt targeted practices that optimise resource use, reduce waste, and improve crop yields. For example, farmers can adjust irrigation systems based on exact moisture needs or apply fertilisers only where deficiencies are detected, minimising environmental impacts.
IoT takes these capabilities further by integrating sensor data across the entire farming ecosystem. Connected devices communicate seamlessly to monitor soil health, predict changes, and provide actionable recommendations. This approach supports sustainable soil management, ensuring that every decision is backed by reliable data – a key focus of this year’s World Soil Day theme.
From Raw Data to Smart Decisions: The AI Transformation in Farming
The vast amounts of data generated by connected devices and sensors in precision farming hold immense potential, but their true value emerges only when processed through advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms. To unlock actionable insights, this data must be meticulously structured, cleaned, and refined—steps essential to making it AI-ready.
However, this remains a significant challenge. Despite the abundance of data, much of it is underutilised due to insufficient preprocessing, preventing farmers from fully benefiting from the insights that could optimise their operations. Bridging this gap requires a focus on rigorous data preparation, ensuring that raw sensor data is transformed into a valuable resource for decision-making.
The STELAR project, a three-year initiative under Horizon Europe, is addressing the complexities of agricultural data management by developing a Knowledge Lake Management System (KLMS). This system integrates data from various sources, ensuring that diverse datasets are connected, understood, and utilised efficiently.
Given the vast volumes of data generated in precision farming, STELAR’s KLMS is designed to manage these large datasets effectively, offering scalable solutions that ensure both precision and accessibility.
With this challenge in mind, STELAR can help by streamlining the use of agrifood data through customised value chains tailored to the needs of modern agriculture. The project focuses on overcoming issues like data discovery, integration, and interoperability, providing farmers with timely, high-quality information.
By addressing data redundancy and improving model accuracy, STELAR ensures that agricultural data is utilised to its fullest potential, supporting more precise, resilient, and sustainable farming practices.
Conclusion
As we reflect on World Soil Day and the importance of sustainable soil management, the STELAR project continues to play a crucial role in advancing smart farming practices. By leveraging cutting-edge data management technologies, STELAR contributes to the development of more efficient, precise, and resilient agricultural practices that support both soil health and food security.
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