December 5 is World Soil Day.

The day was set to raise global concern about soil protection and encourage it. Today, it serves as a forum of soil scientists across the world to protect soil resources.

Such soil destruction phenomena as soil erosion and pollution caused by climate change due to global warming pose a serious threat to the existence and sustainable development of humanity and the earth.

Given the situation, the 74th UN General Assembly session held in 2019 declared the years 2021 through 2030 the UN decade on ecosystem restoration. It aims at reviving hundreds of millions of hectares, covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems.

At present, many countries set protection of soil resources as an important work to simultaneously protect environment and develop the economy and are making vigorous efforts to this end.

Having set the work to protect and improve soil resources as an important state policy, the DPRK is directing great efforts to realizing it.

Such sectoral laws as “The Law of the DPRK on Soil” and “The Law of the DPRK on Agriculture” stipulate the principles, methods and regulations on soil protection and its use.

Soil survey and analysis of all farmland across the country are made periodically and a scientific fertilizing system is being applied according to fields and plots.

Efforts are being made to introduce such advanced farming methods as organic farming, protective farming and food production cycle. Terraced field construction on farmland, protective farming technology by means of non-plowing and straw coating, and agroforestry in forest land are widely introduced to prevent soil erosion and loss.

Research into cultivation of grain and industrial crops in the reclaimed tidelands is also in full swing.

Great efforts are being directed to reducing the amount of chemical fertilizers to continuously improve the fertility of soil and developing various effective organic fertilizers, microbial fertilizers and substitute fertilizers with natural resources as raw materials. These days, blue green algae-biofertilizer, endophytic diazotrophs-biofertilizer, p-biofertilizer and other microbial fertilizers are being produced.

In order to cope with the disastrous climate change around the world, researchers are making studies of various water-saving farming methods and soil and water management methods for preventing flood damage and water logging.

The DPRK endeavours to ensure sustainable development of agricultural production by protecting soil resources of the country and positively cooperates with worldwide efforts to protect and improve soil, water, atmosphere and other ecological environment.

Sin Ki Yong, director of an institute under the Academy of Agricultural Science