Concerted efforts needed to improve soil health for increased harvest

It is alarming to note that the health condition of the country’s soil has severely deteriorated over the past several decades. According to a newspaper report, the nutrient of 76 per cent of our soil has already been degraded.

Every year, an average of 27,000 hectares of land is being declined. In a country like ours struggling with challenges on multiple fronts, soil health deterioration may seem like an insignificant issue.

Meanwhile our researchers have identified some major reasons behind the worsening of soil health. They are deterioration of soil chemistry; soil erosion; lowering of water tables and drought; waterlogging and soil compaction; and loss of biodiversity. The question is: How do we address these factors?

However the fact is, if these major reasons are left unaddressed, they can be just as seriously challenging. Our food security, health and well-being all depend on soil fertility to a large extent, yet our indifference to these issues have resulted in a massive degradation of soil quality.

Indeed, with the ever-growing population, the pressure on Bangladesh’s soil is also growing. In the 70s, rice production stood at 1.20 crore metric tonnes, but now it has increased to 3.8 crore metric tonnes.

High production has been made possible by using modern varieties of paddy, smart irrigation methods, and also increasing use of fertilisers and pesticides.

But this also caused the soil to lose necessary nutrients. Reportedly, 79 per cent of our soil is deficient in essential organic matter, which is frightening. This means the food we are growing and eating also lacks necessary nutrients.

Besides, industrial pollution and topsoil removal are reducing the ability of soil to grow crops. Additionally, our soil is losing productivity due to acidification, which has affected 54.8 per cent of the land. On the other hand, arsenic contamination has affected 30 per cent of the land. Then there is the increasing level of salinity in the soil of the coastal region.

What all this shows is the multidimensional threats facing our soil, and for that, we must prepare accordingly, on multiple levels. We demand the authorities concerned to take concerted efforts in this regard and adopt a comprehensive national land use policy to save our soil from further deterioration with a view to ensuring food security in the country.