Dear Editor,
Essentially soil is the basic entity on which all terrestrial life depends. Ninety five percent of all the food that is consumed by human comes from soil. As much as 95% of all antibiotics taken by human and animal also came from soil & this clearly shows that soil and life have evolved together. There is no life without soil and vice versa. Undoubtedly, soil is one of the vital living ecosystems and natural resources for sustaining all creatures of God; human, animal, vegetation & the mineral kingdom. It is not possible for the ever increasing world habitats and population to procure food, cloth or shelter without soil. Climate change, food security, nutritional security, water quality, water renewability, biodiversity, land grab, political stability, human health, well being, peace and prosperity – soil is the basic of all that. Now the major issue has been human greed & market driven, indiscriminate and out of proportion use of chemical fertilizers & pesticides. This has left an accumulative effect on the fertility of soil, impacting negative financial and environmental consequence all over the world and India in particular. Other threats to the conservation of soil resources are soil erosion both by water and air, salinization/alkalinity, acidity, organic carbon losses, nutrient imbalance, pollution/contamination by toxic substances, and soil sealing and capping. Urgent measures are required to arrest the degradation process and to restore productivity of degraded soils so that more food could be produced to provide livelihood and environmental security to the increasing Indian population.
Vivek Koul,
Jammu.
