About World Soil Day
World Soil Day is observed on 5 December, and in 2026 it falls on Saturday, 5 December 2026. The UN General Assembly set the date in 2013 and the first official observance was in 2014. The date is the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, who supported soil conservation work. The FAO runs the day and picks a theme each year.
Soil is not dirt. A handful of healthy field soil holds more living things than there are people in India: bacteria, fungi, nematodes, mites, earthworms, all of it doing the work that makes a seed worth sowing. Build two or three centimetres of it and you may have taken a thousand years.
Why is World Soil Day on 5 December?
World Soil Day is on 5 December because it is the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, born in 1927, who supported soil conservation and rural land work through his reign. The International Union of Soil Sciences recommended a world soil day in 2002, Thailand and the FAO's Global Soil Partnership pushed it at the UN, the General Assembly designated the date in December 2013, and the first official observance was on 5 December 2014.
The FAO sets a theme each year and gives out two awards on the day: the King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award and the Glinka World Soil Prize. The theme for 2025 was "Healthy soils for healthy cities". Check the FAO's page for the current year before quoting a theme.
The facts the FAO puts out with the day are blunt. About 95 per cent of the food people eat comes from soil. Roughly a third of the world's soils are already degraded. Two to three centimetres of soil can take up to a thousand years to form.
What are the main soil types in India?
India's soils change across the country as sharply as its languages. The broad groups below are the ones used in Indian school geography and agricultural extension work.
| Soil | Where | What it grows, and its weak point |
|---|---|---|
| Alluvial | Indo-Gangetic plain, Brahmaputra valley, coastal deltas | Wheat, rice, sugarcane; fertile but often low in organic matter after decades of intensive cropping |
| Black or regur | Deccan plateau, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh | Cotton, soybean; holds moisture well, cracks deeply when dry and is hard to work when wet |
| Red and yellow | Eastern and southern peninsula, Odisha, Chhattisgarh | Millets, groundnut, pulses; low in nitrogen and phosphorus |
| Laterite | Western Ghats slopes, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha | Cashew, rubber, tea, coffee; acidic and leached, and cut into building bricks |
| Arid and desert | Western Rajasthan, parts of Gujarat and Haryana | Bajra, guar; saline in patches and easily blown away |
| Forest and mountain | Himalaya, Northeast hills | Tea, apples, spices; thin and slides away once the slope is cleared |
| Saline and alkaline | Parts of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, coastal belts | Reclaimable with gypsum and drainage, otherwise little grows |
The bigger worry is degradation. The ISRO Space Applications Centre's desertification atlas found that about 97.85 million hectares, close to 30 per cent of India's land, showed signs of degradation in 2018-19, up from 94.53 million hectares in 2003-05. Erosion by water is the largest single cause.
How does a farmer in India find out what the soil needs?
Through a soil health card. The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on 19 February 2015 at Suratgarh in Rajasthan. Samples from a farmer's plot are tested for the main nutrients and for acidity, salinity and organic carbon, and the card comes back with crop-wise fertiliser recommendations. More than 25 crore cards have been issued across the cycles since 2015.
- RegisterApproach the block agriculture office, a Krishi Vigyan Kendra or a soil testing lab, or use the state's soil health card portal.
- Sample correctlyTake soil from five or six spots in the same plot, from the top 15 cm, mix them and send about half a kilo. A careless sample gives a useless result.
- Wait for the reportThe lab tests for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, micronutrients, pH, salinity and organic carbon.
- Read the last columnThe card lists how much of each fertiliser to apply for the specific crops you grow, not a general dose.
- Act on organic carbonIf that figure is low, the answer is compost, green manure or crop residue, not more urea. Fertiliser cannot fix the structure of a tired soil.
The habit the cards try to break is heavy, uniform urea use, which raises nitrogen without adding anything the soil life needs. Farmyard manure, green manure crops like dhaincha, and leaving crop residue in the field instead of burning it all move in the other direction.
What to write on World Soil Day
On World Soil Day, wishing you a good rabi season and soil that gives back what you put into it.
Happy World Soil Day. The tomatoes in your balcony pots taste better than anything we buy. It is the compost, isn't it?
Happy World Soil Day. Our office wet waste has been going to a landfill for four years. One compost bin and that stops.
Happy Soil Day. Here's to everyone who spends a career on organic carbon, the least glamorous number in agriculture.
Happy World Soil Day. You always said the land remembers how you treat it. The soil scientists agree with you.
Happy World Soil Day. Dig up one spoon of garden soil and count what moves. That is a whole city down there.
See also World Water Day on 22 March, since soil with organic matter holds far more rain, International Day of Forests on 21 March and National Farmers' Day on 23 December.
How to wish someone on World Soil Day
Soil is the least glamorous of the environment days and the one closest to food. Messages that work name a crop, a field, a kitchen garden or a compost bin. For farmers, a wish about the coming season and the state of their land is the point; for city readers, compost and kitchen gardens are the honest hook.
Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.
Language tip: English, Hindi + recipient language.
When is World Soil Day in 2026 and 2027?
World Soil Day is on 5 Dec every year. Only the weekday changes.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
When is World Soil Day in 2026?
World Soil Day 2026 falls on Saturday, 5 December 2026.
Why is World Soil Day celebrated on 5 December?
It is the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, who supported soil conservation work throughout his reign. The International Union of Soil Sciences proposed a world soil day in 2002, the UN General Assembly designated 5 December in 2013, and the first official observance was in 2014.
Who organises World Soil Day?
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations organises it through the Global Soil Partnership. The FAO announces the theme each year and presents the King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award and the Glinka World Soil Prize on the day.
What is a soil health card?
A soil health card is a report issued to an Indian farmer after their soil is tested for nutrients, acidity, salinity and organic carbon. It gives crop-specific fertiliser recommendations for that plot. The scheme was launched on 19 February 2015 and over 25 crore cards have been issued.
How much of India's land is degraded?
The ISRO Space Applications Centre's desertification and land degradation atlas found that about 97.85 million hectares, nearly 30 per cent of India's land area, was degraded in 2018-19, compared with 94.53 million hectares in 2003-05. Water erosion is the largest single cause.
How long does soil take to form?
Very slowly. The FAO estimates that two to three centimetres of soil can take up to a thousand years to form from rock and organic matter. That is why erosion in one heavy season is so hard to undo.
What are the main soil types in India?
The commonly used groups are alluvial soil across the northern plains and deltas, black or regur soil on the Deccan, red and yellow soil in the eastern and southern peninsula, laterite along the Western Ghats and the east coast, arid soil in western Rajasthan, mountain and forest soil in the Himalaya, and saline or alkaline patches in irrigated and coastal belts.
Last verified by the Kehdoo team on .