The award was announced by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) on the eve of World Soil Day 2020

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has received the prestigious King Bhumibol World Soil Day 2020 Award for its efforts towards preservation of soil and checking erosion.

The award instituted by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) was received on ICAR's behalf by the Indian Ambassador to Thailand Suchitra Durai at a ceremony in Bangkok on Wednesday.

The award was presented by Thailand's Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Chalermchai Srion.

According to an official statement, the international recognition was announced by the FAO, Rome on the eve of World Soil Day - 2020 in view of the ICAR’s excellent contributions in “Soil Health Awareness” on the theme “Stop soil erosion, save our future” during the last year.

The statement pointed out that ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh organized several programmes which generated great enthusiasm among the school students, farming community and general public.

The Bhopal-based institute organized a massive awareness campaign for preserving “SOIL - Our Mother Earth” to commemorate the World Soil Day and distributed promotional material on soil health to the participants.