South Sudan commemorates World Soil Day. (Photo: Sebit Patrick/Eye Radio).

An Associate Professor at the University of Juba urges the government to conduct countrywide soil mapping for better soil maintenance and farming practice, as the university and the Ministry of Agriculture commemorate World Soil Day.

The Soil Day was initiated by the International Union of Soil Sciences in 2002 and officially endorsed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2014.

The event is marked to remind governments, communities, and individuals of the need to take concrete steps toward sustainable soil management.

In an interview with Eye Radio, Dr. Pio Kur Deng said the soil day seeks to give information update and special awareness on the importance of soil in the country.

Dr. Kur disclosed that South Sudan has six climatic zones that pose different influence on soil based on temperature and rainfall. He dismissed the narrative that the country’s soil is fertile enough to use fertilizer.

The expert called on the government to conduct mapping of soil in the country to decide its management strategy.

“Currently, we have almost six climate zones, and these climate zones are based on the temperature, amount of water, and vegetative growth,” he narrated.

“But for the soil, since we got our independence, we have not carried out mapping this needs to be done by the national government.”

“I’m advising the national government to come to advice for implementation of the soil mapping. Because our soil is heterogeneous, so it means that it requires also different management.”

“And this different management, because now our people, they are assuming that our soil is very fertile, there is no need for using fertilizers.”

For his part, the Director General for Agriculture Education and Trainings in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security supported the call for knowledge about the soil.

Victor Silvano added that without knowing the soil samples in the country, new technologies cannot be adopted.

He also called for the collection of information on soil and saving them in the database.

“The first thing we are looking at is the information about the soil, the knowledge, because we cannot adapt some other new technologies without knowing the soil itself.”

“Because there are many factors actually in the soil, whether it’s nutritional or physiological, factors are very important in the soil. So for us in South Sudan, if we want to adapt some new technology for us to increase our nutrition or food security, we have to first understand our soil.”

“After understanding our soil, it means that we have to collect all the information about the soil in the database. Then we will be able to appropriately apply the technology for our crop production.”

The Ministry of Agriculture and University of Juba organized the celebration of this day with support from International Fertilizers Development Center or IFDC.

The United Nations says over 95 percent of the world’s food comes from soil. However, in the face of climate change and human activity, soils are being degraded in terms of erosion which disrupts the natural balance.