After Yoga Day, govt plans World Soil Day Dec. 5

After having received a tremendous response from people all over India during the celebrations of International Yoga Day earlier this year, the Narendra Modi government now plans to observe the World Soil Day on December 5 on a large- scale all across the country. It has also shortlisted film icons Amitabh Bachchan and Rajankanth as well as Hindi filmdom’s heartthrob Hrithik Roshan, out of whom one would be selected as the brand ambassador of the event.

A brainchild of the Prime Minister, the day is to be observed on a massive scale and, according to a rough estimate, the government plans to spend around ` 100 crore on the event, sources aware of the development said.

Considering the fact that the day conveys a serious intent, the budget allocated for its observance seems to be huge, however, sources said that in order to observe it on a national level, expenditure of this scale would be needed.

On December 5, the government plans to hold a series of awareness workshops and programmes across all the states to focus on the importance of preserving richness of soil.

The Prime Minister’s Office ( PMO) has formed a group of ministers consisting of ministries of chemical and fertiliser, agriculture, rural development

A brainchild of the Prime Minister, the day is to be observed on a massive scale and, according to a rough estimate, the government plans to spend around 100 crore on the event, sources aware of the development said

and urban development which will work out the modalities for the preparations of the event, sources privy to the development told this newspaper.

The main idea behind it is to spread the message of soil conservation through judicious use of fertilisers which will also help in saving crops and maintaining soil health.

The group of ministers has held two meetings in this regard till now and will be finalising the brand ambassador for the World Soil Day by November as well as the blueprint for observing the event.

In fact the chemical and fertiliser ministry is learnt to have identified excessive zones where fertiliser usage is on the higher side and it plans to reach out to farmers to convey the idea of judicious usage fertilisers in order to preserve soil’s life, sources said.

The UN realised the need to raise awareness about the dangers of soil loss, so it started observing World Soil Day from December 5, 2012 onwards.