soil restoration is helping grow india's economy

For India, agriculture has always been at the heart of its growth. Even with increased levels of urbanisation across the country of the past few decades, India is an economy that relies on agriculture – two-thirds of the population still thrive and depend on farming and agriculture for their livelihood. And when it comes to agriculture, soil and water are two main resources that contribute to its progress but have been taken for granted over the past few decades, to detrimental effects.

However, a new movement of sustainable agriculture and soil restoration is underway across the nation – not only creating new jobs, growing the economy and feeding the country but also giving back to our Earth and leaving lands that are healthy and useful for generations to come.

In Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, a watershed development project positively transformed three villages where the land was uncultivable due to heavy soil erosion and water scarcity. In turn and as a result of the successful soil uplifting, awareness was created on the importance of watershed management through the creation of a Watershed Committee which comprised of farmers as a core committee member from every village.

Sub-saharan Africa is suffering from soil erosion and draughts!

As a result of overfarming and climate change-influenced draughts, Sub Saharan Africa is suffering greatly from soil erosion. One such country is Zambia. Farming in Zambia is predominantly rain-fed, with only about 2 to 3 per cent of cultivated land area annually irrigated.

Agriculture provides employment for 67 per cent of the labour force and remains by far the major opportunity for the employment of rural women in the country – currently, agriculture contributes about 23 per cent of the country’s GDP.

However, over the past decade, soil erosion has become a growing issue in the country. Soil erosion and soil degradation are closely linked to deforestation and clearing new land for agriculture when old fields lose their fertility is a major source of deforestation. On top of that, bush fires are a major cause of soil degradation.

In Zambia, it is crucial that awareness and promotion of irrigation are brought to the forefront among small scale farmers; using simple water-lifting devises and drip irrigation to offset the impact of erratic rainfall can be positive first step. Furthermore, it is also important to work with communities to control bush fires and livestock in the dry season through the involvement and education of local leadership.