Cuba celebrates World Soil Day

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 5 (ACN) Cuba started the celebrations of World Soil Day, run annually on December 5 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with visits by farmers and managers to the national soil polygon and an organic fertilizer production center and a workshop on soil conservation for producers and specialists at the Ministry of Agriculture.
 
This year’s campaign "Soils: where food begins" aims to raise awareness of the importance of this resource for food production, nutrition and optimal diets while maintaining healthy sustainable management practices.
 
 A message from the Minister of Agriculture remarks that soil degradation remains Cuba’s prime environmental problem, with 71% of the country's surface affected by erosion—41% considered to be seriously damaged, to the detriment of production capacity, already affected by factors like salinity, compaction and acidity—and only 23% of the soils having a high productive potential. However, he points out, the policy approved for soil conservation, improvement and sustainable management lays down a new strategy to preserve this resource based on the implementation of scientific results.