Using Soil as a Strategy in the Fight Against Climate Change
Healthy soil promotes biodiversity, aims to relieve the global climate catastrophe, and is essential for food security and sustainable development. Soil is just as valuable as other resources such as plants, animals, rocks, and rivers. It is home to a diverse range of creatures. It serves as a source of atmospheric gases and regulates the movement of water and chemical substances between the ground and the atmosphere.
Soils contain 80 percent of the earth's terrestrial carbon and are the second-largest carbon reserve after the ocean. Soil plays a vital role in climate change, and it is our obligation to protect soil health. However, our inadequate management practices are deteriorating soil health at an alarming rate, causing carbon to be sent back into the atmosphere and reducing soil's capacity as a carbon sink.
Soil contamination can impair productivity by changing soil's physical and biological characteristics. As a result, the impact disrupts the ecological balance and the health of all living things on Earth:
Crops cannot grow or thrive on dirty soil. Even if some crops survive, they may have absorbed the harmful compounds in the soil, causing significant health issues in humans (migraines, nausea, fatigue, skin disorder etc.).
Contamination of soil can also take the form of increased salinity (the quantity of dissolved salts present in water). If the salt content in the soil is too high, dehydration can occur, and the soil becomes unfit for growth, frequently becoming worthless and barren.
According to studies, 15 percent of the world's total arable land has been significantly damaged as a result of the mixing of various hazardous pollutants into the soil.
Various agricultural methods are carried out all around the world since soil provides 95 percent of our food source. Unsustainable agricultural methods have generated severe worldwide issues and have resulted in significant losses of soil organic carbon. According to the researchers, due to unsustainable agricultural methods, the rate of carbon release from agricultural soils has grown substantially over the past 200 years. Food, processing, distribution, and consumption might account for one-third to half of global greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is having an influence on agricultural industries; severe weather, heat waves, and droughts will become more common in the future.
Taking this into consideration, the topic of “how to sustain soil health along agriculture” has emerged. Fortunately, there is a solution to this major issue. We can genuinely enhance soil health by changing from conventional to organic agriculture.
Soil health control is one of the most essential concepts of organic farming. It makes an important contribution to improving and sustaining soil fertility and quality. According to scientists, just one teaspoon of compost-rich organic soil may support 600 million to 1 billion beneficial bacteria from 15000 different species. As a result, organic agriculture helps to:
Healthy soil biodiversity, increased water holding capacity, and porosity, all of which help to mitigate climate change.
Improves soil health and reduces erosion, which has a significant impact on food supply and human health.
Improves soil fertility by adding organic materials into the soil in the form of compost manure and green manure. Instead of damaging the soil after a few years, these fertilizers aim to conserve it.
Giving back to the soil and maintaining its quality by planting cover crops and avoiding monoculture.
