World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought – 17 June 2025
It’s two in the afternoon, and the June sun beats down on a field in La Mancha. From the roadside you can see cracked furrows where vines once thrived. The scene is not unique; similar landscapes stretch across the globe—and they are exactly why 17 June exists. On this date the United Nations urges us to look closer at the silent crisis of disappearing fertile soil.
Three words frame the emergency: water, soil, people.
This year’s UN motto, “Restore the land. Unlock the opportunities,” reminds us that reviving soil life is more than stopping erosion; it sparks jobs, curbs migration, and fills pantries.
Picture holding a spoonful of healthy earth. In that tiny world live more organisms than there are people in Madrid. Fungal threads as thin as silk ferry water and minerals. Bacteria form a living shield against disease. Roots trade sugars for nutrients. Deep ploughing and synthetic fertilizers blow up this alliance: the soil compacts, humus evaporates, and farmers end up buying yet more chemicals. It’s a perfect circle—perfectly destructive.
These aren’t lab recipes; thousands of Spanish farms already use them. Even urban gardeners in Barcelona sprinkle mycorrhizal spores from pocket-sized sachets. The revolution starts almost at kitchen-garden scale.
If the opening scene felt bleak, imagine that same plot of land ten years on: ground covered with herbs between almond trees, earthworms aerating the soil, a well that no longer runs dry after a few days. This vision is neither pricey nor futuristic; it’s simply what happens when we respect the invisible life that sustains us.
So next time you open the fridge or pour a glass of water, remember: restoring the land is really about restoring our future. Without living soil there are no harvests, and without harvests there are no stories left to tell. Let’s keep ours alive.
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