SOIL MANAGEMENT - AGRICULTURE
News: Poor
soil management will erode food security
What's in the news?
● World Soil Day (WSD) 2022,
annually observed on December 5,
with its guiding theme, ‘Soils: Where
food begins’, is a means to raise awareness on the importance of
maintaining healthy soils, ecosystems and human well-being by addressing the
growing challenges in soil management, encouraging societies to improve soil
health, and advocating the sustainable management of soil.
Importance of Soil:
● Healthy
soils are essential for our survival.
● They
support healthy plant growth to
enhance both our nutrition and water percolation to maintain groundwater levels.
● Soils
help to regulate the planet’s climate by
storing carbon and are the second largest carbon sink after the oceans.
● They
help maintain a landscape that is
more resilient to the impacts of droughts and floods.
● Soil
is the basis of food systems and
hence, soil health is critical for healthy food production.
Soil degradation:
● Soil
degradation is referred to as the decline
in the fertility of the soil.
● Soil
degradation is a major factor causing harm to the available soil resources base
in India
● Today,
nutrient loss and pollution significantly threaten soils, and thereby undermine nutrition and food security
globally.
Causes of Soil Degradation:
● The
main drivers contributing to soil degradation are
○ Industrial
activities
○ Mining
○ Waste
treatment
○ Deforestation
○ Agriculture
■ Shifting
cultivation
■ Frequent
cropping
■ Unscientific
rotation of crops
■ Burning
of crop residues
■ Excessive
use of fertilizers and pesticides and
■ Irrigation
with contaminated wastewater
■ Waterlogging
○ Fossil
fuel extraction
○ Processing
and transport emissions
○ Soil
erosion
○ Runoff
and leaching.
Impacts of Soil Degradation:
● Soil
degradation in some form or another affects around 29% of India’s total land
area. This in turn affects various
aspects of life such as
○ Declining
agricultural productivity
○ Desertification
○ Affecting
in-situ biodiversity conservation
○ Reducing
water quality and
○ Affecting
the socio-economic well-being of land dependent communities.
● Nearly 3.7 million
hectares suffer from nutrient loss in soil (depletion of soil organic matter,
or SOM).
● Impacts
of soil degradation are far reaching and can have irreparable consequences on
human and ecosystem health.
India’s conservation strategy:
● The
Government of India is implementing a five-pronged
strategy for soil conservation. This includes
○ Making
soil chemical-free
○ Saving
soil biodiversity
○ Enhancing
soil organic matter
○ Maintaining
soil moisture
○ Mitigating
soil degradation and
○ Preventing
soil erosion.
1. Soil Health Card:
● Earlier,
farmers lacked information relating to soil type, soil deficiency and soil
moisture content.
● To
address these issues, the Government of India launched the Soil Health Card
(SHC) scheme in 2015.
● The
SHC is used to assess the current status
of soil health, and when used over time, to determine changes in soil health.
● The
SHC displays soil health indicators and associated descriptive terms, which
guide farmers to make necessary soil amendments.
2. PMKSY:
● Pradhan
Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana aims to prevent
soil erosion, regeneration of natural vegetation, rainwater harvesting and
recharging of the groundwater table.
3. NMSA:
● The
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) has schemes promoting traditional indigenous practices
such as organic farming and natural farming, thereby reducing dependency on chemicals and other agri-inputs, and
decreasing the monetary burden on smallholder farmers.
4. Collaboration with FAO:
● The
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) undertakes
multiple activities to support the Government of India’s efforts in soil
conservation towards fostering sustainable
agrifood systems.
● The
FAO is collaborating with the National Rainfed Area Authority and the Ministry
of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) to develop forecasting tools
using data analytics that will aid vulnerable farmers in making informed
decisions on crop choices, particularly in rainfed areas.
5. Working with target States:
● The
FAO, in association with the Ministry of Rural Development, supports the Deen
Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission’s (DAY-NRLM)
Community Resource Persons to increase their capacities towards supporting on-farm livelihoods for the
adoption of sustainable and resilient practices, organic certification and
agri-nutri-gardens.
● The
FAO works in eight target States, namely, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha,
Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Punjab, for boosting crop diversification and landscape-level
planning.
● In
Andhra Pradesh, the FAO is partnering with the State government and the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to support
farmers in sustainable transitions to agro-ecological approaches and organic
farming.
6. Conservative Agricultural Practices:
● Contour
bunding, regulated forestry, cover cropping, Contour terracing, controlled
grazing, crop rotation, and mixed farming are in line with preventing soil
degradation.
● The
government needs to encourage these methods in order to conserve soil.
7. Participative approach:
● There
is a need to strengthen communication
channels between academia, policymakers and society for the identification,
management and restoration of degraded soils, as well as in the adoption of
anticipatory measures.
● These
will facilitate the dissemination of timely and evidence-based information to
all relevant stakeholders.
● Greater
cooperation and partnerships are central to ensure the availability of
knowledge, sharing of successful practices, and universal access to clean and
sustainable technologies, leaving no one behind.
● As
consumers and citizens, we can contribute by planting trees to protect topsoil,
developing and maintaining home/kitchen gardens, and consuming foods that are
mainly locally sourced and seasonal.
The
health of soil is one of the most crucial factors not only for farmers who earn
their livelihood from it but for every human being as we are dependent on
agriculture for food and employment.