‘Deepening soil sterility threatens food security’

HYDERABAD: Soil scientists on Tuesday called on the stakeholders, including farmers, researchers, and policymakers to join forces for finding solutions as Pakistan’s soil, the most precious of its natural assets, was losing fertility at an alarming rate, mainly due to sterile policies and a drought of research.

These views were voiced by the experts while speaking at the three-day 18th International Congress of Soil Science 2020 that began on Tuesday at Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tandojam, under the theme “Wise soil management ensures better environment and livelihood”.

Prof Zaheer Ahmed Zaheer from institute of soil and environmental sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, said, “We are facing problems to achieve sustainable development goals in terms of food security”.

“Soil is a vital source for crop productivity, maintaining grazing fields and forests. It is fragile and a limited resource, which develops slowly,” Prof Zaheer. He added that soil was losing its quality because of urbanisation, erosion, salinisation, and unsustainable agriculture practices.

“We have lost soil, which was must to feed the overgrowing population through producing food,” he said.

Addressing the conference, Abdul Bari Pitafi, minister for livestock and fisheries, said, “Soil is not only a cultivable source for producing crops, but is a natural asset on which all creatures and ecosystems depend for life”. The minister said the larger proportion of population in the country depends on agriculture for livelihood and food.

“We are producing crops to meet the need of food of our people. But the situation portrayed by the scientists shows an alarming situation of soil degradation all around due to many reasons; mainly climate change and excessive use of chemical inputs,” Pitafi said.

The minister, however, admitted that in fact there was a lack of planning on the government’s part for paying attention to these ignored sectors, which could provide source of livelihood and produce more food stuff to meet the need of ever-growing population and can end poverty. “We have to maintain soil at all levels to live safe, conserve biodiversity, maintain ecosystem, on which life of humans depend”, the minister said.

Dr Mujeebuddin Memon Sahrai, Vice Chancellor SAU, said “We have three main aspects like soil, water, and seed for agriculture, which at present seem not safe for increasing productivity”.

“Two issues, namely, agriculture engineering and the latest climate change have put huge effects on soil fertility and we are seeing soil degradation.” Qasim Siraj Soomro, a provincial lawmaker from Tharparkar district, said he belongs to a wide desert area, whose soil must be given priority for research and designing plans for cultivating crops.

“It is quite recently, we are witnessing that some people are experiencing saline agriculture in desert, which is benefiting the people.” Soomro expressed the hope the scientists in this event would encourage future scientists to work hard to rehabilitate soil and ensure food security. He suggested comparative studies on soils of different areas, including Thar desert and irrigated area so that the matter be taken up at the legislature and other forums for policymaking.