‘Building organic matter must to maintain soil fertility’

HYDERABAD: If we keep the soil healthy, in return it will keep us healthy by allowing us to produce nutritious food. Taking care of soil fertility is important for food security. Thus, it depends on us!

This was the crux of the debate at a seminar on “Soil conservation and efficient water management for sustainable agriculture” on the occasion of World Soil Day, jointly organised by Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tandojam and Research and Development Foundation (RDF) on Thursday.

The event attracted soil scientists, researchers, farmers from Mirpurkhas district, members of water associations, farmer organisations and those producing compost and bio-char for rehabilitation of soil fertility.

Prof Enayat Rajpar, a soil scientist, researcher and chairman of the soil science department at SAU said now was the time to control soil by adopting organic farming and avoiding chemical use.

Soil biodiversity should be protected through sustainable agriculture practices, mainly adopting organic food crops. He said that hundreds of thousands of acres have turned saline in many districts of the province because of overuse of water and chemical input. “Now this earth is available but useless, because it cannot produce food or any crop,” he said.

In this situation, “we need to adopt old practices to give rest to the land through cultivating trees and forestry. It will help recover land fertility after a few years,” he suggested.

He criticised the government authorities for not keep an eye on land degradation. Continuous usage of land for cultivation without rest has resulted in this situation, the professor added.

Rajpar, who has conducted various studies on different eco regions in Sindh, also pointed out the way farmers burn waste of sugarcane, rice and cotton, which actually destroys the microorganisms which help maintain soil fertility. He gave examples from the nations, who do not burn waste and rather provide water to form compost, which was much needed to maintain microorganisms.

The professor expressed opposition to alternative irrigation systems, like drip irrigation, as he said that it deprived all other biodiversity of the essential resource and only provided water to the plants.

Prof Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar, a researcher and director university advancement and financial enhancement, emphasised the need to introduce land use policy to control urbanisation, which was eating away fertile land through commercialisation.

“We can see developing schemes around the towns, cities and villages using fertile agriculture land because there is no land use policy to save this land for food production,” he said.

He quoted reports which showed that around 80 percent underground water was contaminated and unusable for drinking. Similarly, watercourses were also unsafe. “There are many reports that irrigation water as well as groundwater has become sources of spreading diseases.”

He suggested protecting soil biodiversity, which was important to maintain wildlife, mainly insects inhabiting there. He talked about the different eco-regions of the province, including coastal and arid zones, where soil was under stress due to many reasons, including sea intrusion.

Masroor Shahwani, another researcher, working with Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) also pointed out misuse of soil.

“Now, we have to revive the soil to ensure production of nutritious food. If the land cannot produce, encourage farmers to plant trees and forests like our forefathers used to do to maintain soil fertility,” he said.

Trees have important elements that help recover soil fertility after some time. “We have plant nurseries everywhere, but they do not have forest tree species, which could help revive forestry,” he pointed out.

The speakers opposed cultivation of sugarcane continuously on the same land every year without rest, and suggested adopting crop rotation.

Some farmers said they needed on-farm drain system to avoid salinity, which has destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres.

Saima Awan, a researcher suggested to adopt bio-char technology to maintain soil. She said many agriculture nations that adopted bio-char technology were now sharing success stories. But in Pakistan, especially in Sindh, there was no concept to adopt alternative methods for soil conservation.

She asked farmers to have bio-char fertiliser for the rehabilitation of lands in case they were facing productivity issues.

Abdul Jaleel Jarwar, representing a fertiliser company asked farmers not to burn agriculture waste, which was actually organic matter, and helped keeping the land fertile. “You should give water to turn it into compost naturally.”

Avoiding to burn the waste could save many essential microorganisms that were beneficial for soil fertility. He said there were no rules that prohibited the usage of pesticides that were banned worldwide.

Bawani Shankar, agriculture department representative, said besides excessive use of chemical input, unequal water distribution was also the main cause of land infertility.

“We can see a large proportion of agricultural land has turned barren,” he said, adding that this showed lack of awareness among farmers in the field, who used excess water and chemicals as inputs.

He endorsed the crop rotation mechanism, which allowed the precious arable land some rest.