News Highlight
- Food security is being jeopardised due to poor soil management.
Key Takeaway
- Soil degradation can have irreversible effects on human and ecosystem health, which must not be overlooked.
World Soil Day
- The United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organisation observes World Soil Day on December 5.
- Theme
- The theme this year is ‘Soils: where food begins.
- Aim
- To raise awareness of the significance of preserving healthy ecosystems.
- To maintain human well-being by addressing growing soil management challenges.
- It is increasing soil awareness and encouraging societies to improve soil health.
Soil Management and Food Security
- Current Situation
- According to the UN, soil mismanagement endangers the survival of many species on Earth, including humans.
- Food shortages could be alleviated by restoring degraded farmland.
- Scientists are increasingly concerned that humanity is destroying the soil beneath our feet.
- Because up to 40% of the world’s land is now degraded.
- It worsens the effects of climate change and contributes to hunger and poverty.
- Poor agricultural techniques cause soil erosion, falling crop yields, and a decline in biodiversity, all resulting in land degradation.
- This is happening when the Ukraine crisis has caused prices for food, fertiliser, and energy to soar, adding to the world’s food insecurity.
- In the last three years, the number of people who experience hunger has more than doubled.
Importance Soil Management
- Soil is the world’s most oversized water filter.
- Water is cleaned for us as it filters down through the soil to the groundwater and may begin with bacteria, toxins, and other filthy substances.
- Soils are also crucial for climate change mitigation.
- It has a carbon content of more than three times greater than the Earth’s atmosphere.
- Soil is home to more than a quarter of the world’s biodiversity.
- Every gram of soil contains millions of bacteria and fungi cells, critical to all ecosystem services.
- Provides the basis for antibiotics.
- Most of our antibiotics used in clinical settings are derived from soil bacteria.
- Medicines derived from soil bacteria changed health care.
Soil Degradation and Consequences
- What is Soil Degradation?
- When the quality of the soil deteriorates, this is known as soil degradation.
- It decreases the capacity to support animals and plants.
- The specific physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of soil that support the web of life there can disappear.
- Soil erosion is a part of soil degradation.
- It occurs when nutrients and topsoil are lost naturally through wind erosion or human behaviour.
- The cause of soil degradation and how it affects us
- The soil is a living environment that supports life, not an inert substance.
- An inch of topsoil takes hundreds of thousands of years to create and many more decades to become fertile.
- Over the past few decades, intensive farming methods like deforestation, overgrazing, intensive cultivation, forest fires, and construction activities have sped up soil degradation.
- When a natural area, like a forest, is turned into farmland, it loses crucial nutrients and limits the recycling and replenishment of organic matter.
- It also reduces the amount of carbon the soil can store by 50-75%.
- Soil degradation can have disastrous effects worldwide, such as landslides, floods, and increased pollution.
- It also causes desertification and a decline in global food production.
- Land degradation and the resulting decrease in soil fertility are two main challenges to our future food security.
- Many people in low-income countries could be forced to leave their homes for safety and fertile lands.
- It results in the loss of cultural identity and the potential for political and economic instability elsewhere.
- How it affects food security?
- The world relies on soil for 95% of our food production.
- According to the United Nations, soil erosion could reduce crop yields by up to 10% by 2050.
- It is the equivalent of removing millions of acres of farmland.
- When the world loses soil, food supply, clean drinking water, and biodiversity is jeopardised.
- Droughts in Guyana at the turn of the century led to a 37% decrease in rice production.
- Between 2015 and 2017, a prolonged drought in Haiti worsened the situation for around 1 million people’s access to food.
Solutions
- Many practices can be changed to prevent and, in some cases, reverse soil degradation.
- Regenerative Agriculture
- Regenerative agriculture is an all-encompassing farming method that prioritises soil health, food quality, increasing biodiversity, water quality, and air quality.
- Using techniques that boost soil organic matter, biota, and biodiversity enhances soil health.
- It improves soil health, fosters biodiversity, and replenishes the soil with nutrients and carbon.
- Sustainable land management
- It is defined by the UN 1992 Rio Earth Summit as the use of land resources, including soils, water, animals and plants, to produce goods to meet changing human needs.
- Education and Awareness
- Education can also encourage individuals to grow their produce.
- It can encourage curiosity, enthusiasm for nature, and a desire to preserve the environment.
- Additionally, it lessens some of the strain that farmers must endure to accommodate an expanding population.
- Practising crop rotation
- It allows different plants to grow in an area of soil every year.
- This enables the soil to replenish itself with the nutrients it has lost after supporting the growth of a particular plant type.
- Agroforestry
- It involves growing crops around trees and other plants, such as hedges.
- They also act as a form of protection against wind and water damage.
Conclusion
- Soil is a priceless, non-renewable resource home to thousands of animals, plants and other important organisms.
- It supports countless ecosystems and provides us with essential food and resources.
- By conserving soil, we can ensure stable food security.
Pic Courtesy: The Hindu
Content Source: The Hindu