‘Revive Soil-Friendly Agricultural Practices’
In the last 100–150 years, we have destroyed over 50 per cent of this precious soil, which generates 95 per cent of our food. Year after year, we are taking out the crop, and after that the land is empty. Modern machines are ploughing 12 ‒14 inches deep, ripping the soil open and leaving it open to the sunlight. The summer sun kills the soil completely because the first 12‒15 inches has all the microbial activity. This is literally murder of the soil. A handful of soil can have eight to ten billion organisms. This life beneath the soil – all the worms, insects and microbial organisms – are not designed to survive in harsh sunlight; they are designed to survive in shade.
First of all, why do we plough? Plowing is to oxygenate the soil. If it is hard packed, you want to open it. But the best way to do this is to keep the organic content high, so that the level of microbial activity is such that the soil becomes very porous.
Every farmer knew that land must always be under cover just 50 ‒ 60 years ago. We have acquired these bad habits only in the last 30 ‒40 years. For example, in India, it used to be common practice during the summers to always have a legume or pulse crop. Everyone knew that they won't get much yield from it, but it was left there to cover the land. When the rains came, the crop was ploughed back into the land. This would easily put back two to four inches of organic content or humus every year.
Another aspect is that we are putting pesticides and chemical fertilisers into the soil but no organic content. It is like you are eating good food and you are healthy, but then you take a blood test and find your calcium or iron is not good enough. So you take a pill for a few months, as it is needed. Fertilisers are such supplements. If something is lacking today for the crop that I want to grow, I add a little supplement. But let us say you took the calcium pill and felt really nice, and then decided that all this food is trash and that you will just eat calcium tablets. That is what we are doing to the soil. We are not against fertilisers or pesticides, but the important thing is organic content should be there. You will see that as you increase the organic content, the need for fertilisers will come down.
Right now, the Save Soil movement aims to bring about a global policy that there must be a minimum three to six per cent of organic content in agricultural land. In consultation with the top scientists in the world, we are preparing a soil policy document, which will have hundreds of ways in which we can regenerate soil in the world, depending on the latitudinal position, region, soil conditions, economic conditions, and also the agricultural traditions of the nation because agricultural traditions cannot be changed overnight. Every country can do it in their own way, taking all this into consideration.
This global scale disaster can be turned around simply with a committed focus. It does not need any absolutely new technology or trillions of dollars. What it needs is a committed approach from the government.
Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.
