Urgency to improve soil biodiversity

Global Soil Partner-ship will play a role in the adoption of sustainable develop-ment goals for soils.

The 68th UN General Assembly has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils (IYS) and soil experts from all over the globe backed, by their respective governments, have come together to play a fundamental role in positioning soils on the global agenda through sound science. 

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of UN quotes, “Soil is a finite natural resource, the foundation for food, animal feed, fuel and natural fibre production, the supply of clean water, nutrient cycling and a range of ecosystem functions.”

The Indian farmers worship the earth every year before tilling is started quoting, “Soil is the mother of agriculture, the mother of life.” However, the only Indian representation in this IYS Global Partnership is through an NGO, the Association for Promoting Sustainability in Campuses and Communities (APSCC). Thus, it is time for us to introspect ourselves to assess how much we have cared for this ‘mother of life’.

Soil is one of the most diverse habitats on earth fostering nature's most complex ecosystems. Soil harbours a myriad number of different organisms, which interact with and complement the global cycles to facilitate all life forms. Over 1000 species of invertebrates may be found in a single m2 of forest soils, thus making it a community with most densely packed species in the nature. 

Soil organisms are responsible for performing vital functions in the soil ecosystem which have direct interactions with the biological, atmospheric and hydrological systems. Therefore, quality and health of soils largely determine environmental quality, agricultural production and sustainability, and as a consequence of both, has bearing on plant, animal and human health.

Soil diversity is even more distinct having nearly 46 out of 60 soil types in the country. There are 20 agro-climatic regions with all 15 major climates of the world. From snow bound Himalayas to hot humid Southern peninsula and Thar Desert to rain forests exist in India.

The country is the centre for biodiversity in plants, animals, insects, micro-organism and accounts for 17 per cent animal, 12 per cent plants and 10 per cent fish genetic resources of the globe. Sunshine hours and day length are ideally suited for round the year cultivation of crops. Over 52 per cent of total land is cultivable as against 11 per cent in the world, and agriculture contributes to 14 per cent of the GDP, 15.2 per cent of total exports and provides employment to 58.4 per cent of country’s work force. In the soils dependent livestock sector, India has 16 per cent of cattle, 57 per cent of buffalo, 17 per cent of goats and 5 per cent of sheep population of the world.

While underground biodiversity of soils is little known and largely invisible to the human eye, it has been further masked by our apathy towards its importance. Rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, deforestation, climate changes and soil erosion are destroying the ‘mother of life’, thus shrinking the agricultural land base.

During the last decade alone, area under non-agricultural uses has increased by 2.57 million hectare by 11 per cent. Tho-ugh the percentage of rural population is 68 per cent, the urban population is growing faster and a crossover is expected in the year 2045. Industrialisation is adding to the woes by way of damage due to industrial waste, pollution, water extraction by the industries, townships etc.

Soil environment

Deforestation due to various reasons affects the soil environment and drastically reduces the number and species of soil organisms. A total of 78 per cent of the forest area is subjected to heavy grazing and other unregulated uses and nearly 10 MHa of the area is subjected to shifting cultivation, consequently adversely affecting productivity and regeneration. Per capita forest area is only 0.064 ha against the world average of 0.64 ha.

Unscientific farming techniques and overuse or misuse of fertilisers and pesticides are also rendering the cultivatable agricultural land useless. Furthermore, climate change is likely to impact agricultural land use and production due to less availability of water for irrigation, droug-hts, floods, low soil organic matter, soil erosion, less availability of energy, coastal flooding etc.,

Dwindling agricultural land along with land degradation are a major threat to our food and environmental security against the background of population explosion. The international technical committee of soils has called for the Global Soil Partnership to support the process leading to the adoption of sustainable development goals for soils and it has suggested five pillars of action to achieve this objective. 

The five Pillars of Action are: Promote sustainable Soil management; Encourage investment and education; Promote targeted soil research and development; Enhance the quantity and quality of soil data and information; and Standardisation of methods to protect soil resources. Lawmakers, scienti-sts, researchers and farmers ha-ve to wake-up to this call of IYS to avoid the looming food, environment and health crisis. The-re is an urgent need to improve soil biodiversity, which is vital to ensuring soil health and future food and nutrition security.

(The writer is Professor and Head, Department of ENT, Head & Neck Surgery, Basaveshwara Medical College and Hospital, Chitradurga, Karnataka)