• Nearly 3.7 million hectares suffers from nutrient loss in soil (depletion of soil organic matter or SOM).
• Soil degradation affects around 29% of India’s total land area.
• Depending on climate and vegetations it takes 200-400 years to form 1 cm of soil.
• United Nations sustainable development goals aims to reach having 75% healthy soils by 2030.
• In order to realise such goals, several global efforts have been made to spread awareness on adverse impacts of soil degradation including the celebration of world soil day.

Soil and its significance

• Soil is second largest carbon sink after the oceans.
• It supports healthy plant growth and hence enhances nutrition.
• It supports water percolation and thus maintains groundwater levels.
• It helps to regulate climate of earth by storing carbon.
• It helps maintaining landscape that is more resilient to the impacts of droughts and floods.

Degradation of soil and its consequences

• Soil degradation is the physical, chemical and biological decline of soil quality.
• It is caused by-
• Loss of organic matter and decline in soil fertility.
• Structural condition and burning of crop residues.
• Erosion, runoff, leaching and excessive flooding.
• Adverse changes in salinity, acidity or alkalinity.
• Effects of toxic chemicals, pollutants, fertilizers and pesticides.
• Irrigation with contaminated wastewater.
• Nutrient loss and pollution are biggest threat to soil.
• It undermines global nutrition and food security.
• Contributors to soil degradation- industrial activities, mining, waste treatment, agriculture, fossil fuel extraction
• It threatens-
• Agricultural productivity,
• In-situ biodiversity conservation,
• Water quality,
• Socio-economic well-being of land dependent communities.

Indian Government’s efforts to tackle soil degradation

Five-pronged strategy outlined by PM:

• It includes:
• Making soil chemical-free.
• Saving soil biodiversity.
• Enhancing SOM (soil organic matter).
• Maintaining soil moisture.
• Mitigating soil degradation and preventing soil erosion.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana:

• It is a Centrally Sponsored Schemelaunched in 2015.
• It aims to prevent soil erosion, regenerationof natural vegetation, rainwater harvesting and recharge of groundwater table.

Soil Health Card (SHC)

• It was launched by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers'' Welfare in 2015.
• SHC is used to assess the current status of soil health and after some time- determine changes in soil health.
• It contains status of soil with respect to 12 parameters-
• Macro-nutrients -Nitrogen, Potassium, phosphorus.
• Secondary- nutrient -Sulphur.
• Micro – nutrients- Zinc, iron, copper, manganese, boron monoxide.
• Physical parameters- pH, EC, OC.

• SHC recommends fertilizer and soil amendment required for the farm.
• Scheme is implemented by- Department of Agriculture of all the State and Union Territory Governments.
• Earlier, farmers lacked information related to soil type, soil deficiency and soil moisture content.

National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)

• It has various schemes that promotes traditional practices such as organic farming and natural farming.
• This reduces dependency on chemicals and other Agri-inputs.
• This decreases the monetary burden on smallholder farmers.
• It is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).

Programmes under NMSA

• Rainfed Area Development (RAD) will promote- Soil health card based nutrient management practices, farmland development, resource conservation and crop selection according to local agro climatic condition.
• Sub-Mission on Agroforestry encourages tree plantation on farm land “Har Medh Par Ped”, along with crops/ cropping system.
• National Bamboo Mission aims to boost cultivation of bamboo to ensure proper supply for industry.
• Climate Change and Sustainable Agriculture: Monitoring, Modelling and Networking provides climate change related information and knowledge by piloting climate change model projects under climate smart sustainable management practices suitable to local agro-climatic conditions.
• Soil Health Management (SHM) will promote location and crop specific soil health management like Residue management and Organic farming.
• This will be done by creating soil fertility map, appropriate land use, judicious application of fertilizers and minimizing soil degradation.

Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations’ effort for soil conservation

• It will develop forecasting tools using data analytics to aid vulnerable farmers to make decisions on crop choices, particularly in rainfed areas.
• It will work with National Rainfed Area Authority and Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW).
• It will support Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission’s (DAY-NRLM) Community Resource Persons-.
• Aim-to increase capacity in on-farm livelihoods for adoption of sustainable and resilient practices, organic certification and Agri-nutri-gardens.
• Deendayal antyodaya yojana was launched by Ministry of Housing and Urban poverty alleviation in 2016.

• It works for boosting crop diversification and landscape-level planning.
• Target eight States- Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Punjab.
• In Andhra Pradesh, FAO supports farmers in sustainable transitions to agro-ecological approaches and organic farming.
• It will work with the State government and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

World Soil Day

• In 2002, International Union of Soil Sciences proposed world soil day to raise awareness about the degrading condition of the soil.
• It was drawn under leadership of Kingdom of Thailand.
• In June 2013, the FAO Conference endorsed World Soil Day and requested its official adoption at 68th United nations General Assembly.
• The UNGA designated December 5 2014 as the first official World Soil Day.

World Soil Day (WSD) 2022

• Theme- “Soils: Where food begins”.
• It will 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 prescribing the sustainable management of soil.

Looking ahead

Better soil health is a key to end hunger problems striving in World and India particularly. It will help ensure reaching the goals of United nations sustainable development under-Goal 2: Ending Hunger, Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, Goal 13: Climate Action, Goal 15: Reducing Desertification of Soils. In this regard, there is a strong need to strengthen policy at Government level and create enough awareness amongst farming communities, construction industry and similar stakeholders to ensure soil of health remains at an optimal level.