Soil rarely attracts attention in Pakistan, yet it underpins food security, climate resilience and urban liveability.

Beneath farms, forests and cities lies a living system rich in organic matter, microbes and nutrients, now degrading rapidly. The impacts are already visible in declining crop yields, worsening floods and heatwaves, polluted water bodies and deepening rural poverty. Without an urgent, sustainable and evidence-based national soil policy, Pakistan will continue to bear severe economic, social and environmental costs.

The warning signs are unmistakable. At a recent seminar at Sindh Agriculture University (SAU), Tandojam, scientists and policymakers highlighted how climate change is accelerating soil degradation nationwide. Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, prolonged flooding, salinity, plastic pollution and unplanned urbanisation are eroding soil health. Particularly alarming is the........

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