We all know that fertile soil is vital. It forms a very thin layer (10 centimeters in total) on the Earth’s surface, which takes about 2,000 years to form. Millions of hectares of land are lost yearly due to improper farming techniques, the construction of cities and roads, and deforestation. Cities are swallowing up fields. Fields are being expanded at the expense of forests and grasslands. Without protecting the soil, in other words, by threatening its health, it will not be possible to feed the growing world population, limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, or prevent the loss of biodiversity.
As the LOESS Türkiye team, we continue to investigate the state of soil health awareness education in our country and interview experts in this field. Our guests last week:
-Nihal Mercan (Biology Teacher at Antalya Bahçeşehir Park Orman Kampüsü)
-Özlem Külbay (Konya Çumra Çatalhöyük Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School Agriculture Teacher)
We conducted interviews with both teachers separately on the Zoom online platform, lasting approximately 60 minutes. We discussed the content, shortcomings, and difficulties of the healthy soil awareness education with our teacher Nihal within the scope of the Biology course at the high school level and given in Vocational and Technical Anatolian High Schools in the field of Agriculture with our teacher Özlem. We also discussed how the desired healthy soil education should be. We want to thank each of them for their participation in the LOESS Türkiye Community of Practice and for sharing their valuable knowledge and experiences with us by participating in these interviews.
