--------------------------------------------------------------------Degradation of
agricultural land, un-sustainable use of water, irresponsible uses of toxic
chemicals and energy intensive production systems are all leading to loss of
soil health as well as climate change disaster. The need for environmentally
sound systems to ensure soil health management
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“Soil is life; Soil is work; and
we are baseless without soil”, this was said by great saint and philosopher Sri
Purandharadasa in his one of the devotional songs. “A nation that destroys its
soil destroys itself” said by another philosopher Franklin D Roosevelt. Those
lines indicate the importance of soil for our future of life. Soil is also one
of the major ingredients in Naturopathy and Ayurveda treatment. The top soil
determines the crop productivity and well being of the people. The Organic
matter, Decomposers, Oxygen, Sunlight and Nutrient recycled microbes are very much
important in maintaining the Soil life cycle. If human died goes in to the soil
but soil died? This is a very philosophical question, but we all need to get
the solution through proper soil health management.
The 95% of our food comes from
soil and remaining is from water. Over 90 per cent of the planet's
genetic biodiversity is said to be found in soils. By some estimates, a gram of
soil can contain as many as 10,000 different species. Of the millions of life
forms that inhabit the soil, some like earthworms are visible to the naked eye.
A majority of the soil fauna, however, are microscopic. Even though we know
little of their presence, each plays a crucial role ensuring soil building.
Living and healthy soil is the very foundation of agriculture and thus an
agro-economy like India. Healthy soils support millions of life forms, making
it an ecosystem in itself - providing a healthy medium for crops to take root
and enabling a steady supply of nutrients. Government policies have heavily
subsidized on chemical fertilizers, which has catalyzed the indiscriminate use
of these fertilizers. Moreover, the complete neglect of ecological or organic
fertilization, especially during the peak Green Revolution period is the root
cause of the present soil health crisis.
Living
organisms in the soil play a crucial role in maintaining healthy, fertile
soils, thus ensuring productivity over the long run. Government policies,
however, have focused on investments and research practices on controlling
these rather than maintaining living organisms that are beneficial to the soil.
Healthy soil nurtures and nourishes plants. Biological productivity, capacity
to regulate water flow, storing and recycling nutrients, filtering, buffering
and transforming organic and inorganic materials are all functions of healthy soils. Moreover, healthy
soils serve as a genetic reserve for a multitude of life forms. If we are to
ensure healthy soils, through organic methods that will optimize on multiple
soil health functions
Building soil
health through Vermi composting
Shivananda G Ramagiri, a 55 year
old organic farmer from Mugali village of Shiggaon taluk of Haveri District in
Karnataka. Generally speaking, managing Black Cotton (BC) soil health is little
difficult, but he has done with simple following principles.
He takes 100kg of farm yard
manure or Vermi Compost (VC) and mix with one kilo of each Trichoderma,
Mychorihza and Pseudomonas under the shade condition. Mix the all four ingredient
and cover with paddy or finger millet straw, and add around 10 liters of water
on it for three days continuously. It has been used while sowing or while
planting in the pit as a basal dose.
He has done big scale VC
production unit in his backyard with proper shed. This VC unit is the
instrumental catalyst to maintain his all 30 acres farm land. There are around
18 pits of 10 X 3 X 2.5ft sizes. He is able to harvest around 40 to 45 tons of
VC every year by using agriculture bio-waste and biogas slurry from his own
farm.
Mainly he cultivates soil binding
crops every year in his entire land. He takes ground nut or Soybean in the
Kharif season, and then he cultivates Muguthi sorghum in the Rabi season as
rotation crop. In other piece of land, he takes Sahana Desi cotton with chilly
in the Kharif season, and then he cultivates cowpea in the Rabi season. He
always maintain legume versus cereals on rotation basis.
Building soil
through Jeevambrutha coated farm yard manure
C D Patil, a 75 year old organic
farmer from Kankanawada village of Shiggaon taluk of Haveri District in
Karnataka. He is practicing four simple principles to maintain soil health. He
always produce Jeevambrutha coated farm yard manure (FYM) for entire his land.
He spreads the three feet height half decomposed FYM under the shade in his
land. He puts ready Jeevambrutha on the spread FYM for two times in 30 days
time. It will be ready after 30 days and he used treated FYM while sowing to
all crops.
He always treats the seed with
Beejambrutha while sowing for all kinds of seeds, especially Sorghum, Cotton,
Ground nut, Banana, Green gram and Soybean.
He applies Jeevambrutha and Neem
cake for all kind of crops. Another last principle is cultivating back entire
crop after harvest with rotavotar machine to increase organic matters in the
soil.
Building soil
health through legume culture practice
A N Anjaneya (37), is a young
organic farmer started legume culture practice (Incorporating Green manure
crops matters before sowing main crops) in his four acres of saline affected
paddy area in Kumbaluru village of Harihara Taluk of Davanagere district in
Karnataka, It was implemented during 2009 with support from department of
agriculture. Legume culture practice has improved over the period of years in
Kumbaluru village, the extent of legume culture system was increased 40 acres
in 2010; and then increase to 150 acres in 2011; 400 acres in 2012; 600 acres
in 2013 and finally increased to 1,200 acres in 2014. Now, paddy growers in the
village are demanding for 12,000 acres in the upcoming year. The balaga team
members are mainly used green manure seeds such as Sunhemp, Velvet beans,
Diayancha and Pilpesaru in their legume culture method. The entire work has
been implemented and monitored by Sarana Muddanna Savayava Krushikara Balaga
(It is a registered organic farmer’s society) and monitory support by district
agriculture department.
The main impacts of the legume
culture practice are; the cost of production reduced up to 20pc, Enhance the
land fertility due to increase in the soil carbon, incidence of pest and
disease decreased, Quantum of chemical fertilizer decreased and last but not
the least quality of health improved a lot over the period of 5 years said by A
N Anjaneya and his team members.
We all should encourage eco
friendly soil building process with deep intention of manages soil health
without using chemicals. At lost physical, chemical and biological properties
of top soil
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