Healthy soils are critical for global food production, but we are not paying enough attention to this important "silent ally," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said on the eve of World Soil Day, to be celebrated on 5 December. 

Healthy soils not only are the foundation for food, fuel, fibre and medical products, but also are essential to our ecosystems,  playing a key role in the carbon cycle, storing and filtering water, and improving resilience to floods and droughts, he noted. 

The UN has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. The year will be kicked off tomorrow at events in Rome, New York and Santiago de Chile, in an effort to raise awareness and promote more sustainable use of this critical resource.