UN to designate December 5 "World Soil Day"

BANGKOK, June 21 (TNA) - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will likely designate December 5, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday, the "World Soil Day" in a global honour and recognition of the Thai monarch's work on and promotion of soil conservation and solution to soil problems. According to Deputy Permanent Secretary for Agriculture and Cooperatives Chalit Dumpongsak, the FAO Council resolved at its recent meeting in Italy to announce 2015 as the International Year of Soil and to support and to push for the United Nations' endorsement of the World Soil Day, as proposed by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), in a bit to advocate the importance of soil. His Majesty the King was also honourably conferred the Humanitarian Soil Scientist by the IUSS for his royal-initiated projects on soil conservation and solution to soil problems in April 2012. (TNA)