Soil crisis: Yields, dreams turn to dust

Located just a stone’s throw from River Krishna is Sunil Hipparagi’s four-acre field. However, the 22-year-old farmer has lost hope of cultivating anything

Located just a stone’s throw from River Krishna is Sunil Hipparagi’s four-acre field. Yet, the 22-year-old farmer has lost hope of cultivating anything here.

The plough last touched his land in Maigur village of Bagalkot district in 2010. “Our land stopped breathing due to excessive water accumulation,” says Sunil. He discontinued his studies after II PU and now works as an agriculture labourer.

The village draws water from the river through pumpsets, flowing the supply through pipelines to the fields. For four months in a year, the village also receives water supply from the Ghataprabha canal.

Such easy accessibility to a water source, however, proved a double-edged sword. Over 150 families in this village of 1,000 households had to quit farming after the soil turned saline due to over-irrigation.

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As a result, around 500 families are unable to cultivate in parts of their land. More than 40 per cent of the agricultural land in the village, which is in the sugarcane belt, is unfit for agriculture due to salinity and waterlogging. “Even in the remaining land we are getting only 50 per cent yield,” says farmer Mallu Patil.

Years of water mismanagement, coupled with monocropping and the indiscriminate use of fertilisers and pesticides, have resulted in the current situation. Industrial agriculture, disappearance of water harvesting structures and loss of vegetation have also affected soil health.

The words “mannalli enu illa,” or “there is nothing left in the soil” resound through not only the irrigated lands of Bagalkot and Belagavi but also in the rainfed fields of Tumakuru and Chitradurga.

In the lush fields of paddy and sugarcane, salt-affected soils are a lurking danger. In rainfed lands, on the other hand, surface runoff leads to soil erosion. Both are human-induced problems.

Farmers at both ends of the water availability spectrum have been unable to harvest a good crop due to poor soil quality.

At the frontline of the soil crisis are farmers. In the big picture, it is food security that is at stake.

An ISRO survey published in 2021 shows that 36.29 per cent (6.96 million ha) of Karnataka’s total geographical area is undergoing land degradation or desertification. Karnataka is among the five states with high rates of land degradation and desertification.

Across the country, 97.85 million hectares (29.77 per cent of the total geographical area) are being desertified and degraded. Analysis of the figures shows that the area has been increasing rapidly over the past two decades.

According to the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), most rainfed crops in the country suffer an annual production loss of 13.4 million tonnes due to water erosion — amounting to a financial loss of Rs 205.32 billion.

Water erosion (26.13 per cent) is a significant cause of land degradation in the state followed by vegetation degradation (8.85 per cent).

Salinity and waterlogging are major problems in Karnataka. Thye affect lakhs of hectares of land, both in cultivable command areas and irrigated land in the rainfed areas. The prohibitive costs make soil treatment impossible for individual farmers without which no regenerative efforts can be undertaken.

Rajendra Poddar, director, Water and Land Management Institute, Dharwad proposes a three-pronged approach to address the challenge. “Agronomics that constitute soil management and crop production; agro engineering and participatory irrigation management (PIM) involving water users, farmers and engineers” will help overcome the issue, he says. Water users cooperative societies are at the core of PIM, especially in command areas.

While Karnataka is required to have 5,000 water users societies, around 3,000 have been registered so far. “Of them, only 2,000 are functional, that too, to a certain extent,” says Poddar.

In the absence of a proper regulatory system, availability of water, not its requirement, drives its use. “Until disaster struck us, we thought that more water is better for the soil and our crops. So, we used to flood the fields whenever there was water in the canals,” says B A Patil, a farmer in Chikkodi taluk of Belagavi district.

Abundant water encouraged farmers to also use more fertilisers for better yields. However, the bumper harvest of the initial years came with a cost — the fertility of soil.

G Sridhar of Gangavathi in Koppal district has experienced the consequences of this cost. Two years ago, he was unable to cultivate paddy after the water availability reduced in the area. Due to years of high water use, the presence of salt deposits on his field mandated more irrigation as these minerals are soluble only in water. “I am able to grow only paddy as both the first and second crop due to high salt content. No other crop grows in this field,” he says.

Excessive salt accumulation also does not allow cropped plants to absorb nutrients. This issue is evident on the fields in the paddy belt of the Tungabhadra command area where one can see a layer of white deposits on the soil in summer.

Crop diversity

Monocropping and the use of inorganic chemicals also squeeze the life out of soil. Fertiliser use has, in fact, been steadily increasing in the state over the years. Per the Agriculture Department data, the state’s NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) consumption ratio is healthy (4:2:1). However, a closer look shows that only nine districts have used the ideal nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratio.

Farmer Padmaraju from Thovinakere in Tumakuru has noticed how this resulted in the decline of groundnut cultivation in the rainfed lands. “This whole region is known for quality groundnuts. Twenty years ago, one truck of groundnuts would be sent to the market every day in March and April. The soil could not take anymore. Now, we do not grow even 10 per cent of what we used to grow,” he says.

Monocropping depletes one set of primary and secondary nutrients, as well as micronutrients, creating an imbalance over a period of time.

An imbalance in soil composition makes plants vulnerable to pests and diseases. “Poor soil quality causes soil-borne diseases in crops. It is a major factor for pest and insect incidence in plants,” says D Jemla Naik, head of department, Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

Organic matter

Additionally, the health of soil is determined by the contents of not just minerals, water and air but also organic matter.

Organic matter is key to bind together the three components of soil — sand, silt and clay. “Soil without any organic matter is nothing but dust,” says J Vishwanath, soil scientist, Agriculture Research Station, Gangavathi.

Organic carbon content and the soil’s capacity to percolate water are two key indicators of soil health. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, soil acts as a major carbon sink alongside oceans and forests.

Soil erosion, however, has resulted in the loss of organic carbon, which is a major concern in the country. The annual average soil loss rate in India is estimated to be 15 tonnes per hectare.

Water retention

Also, a matter of concern is how soil degradation diminishes the water-holding capacity of soil. Despite the heavy rainfall that Karnataka received during the last monsoon, over half of the state is staring at a water crisis, according to the Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute.

P Srinivas aka ‘Soil Vasu’, who is on a mission to create awareness on the importance of soil, says, “Poor water retention is a direct consequence of soil degradation.” His experiments have shown that only 10-20 per cent of rainfall percolates through the soil. The ideal percolation rate is 70-80 per cent, he adds.

The solutions

“Crop diversification, green manure and judicious use of water and fertilisers are key to ensure a living soil. We are working towards restoring soil health to address challenges posed by climate change as well,” says G T Puthra, director, Agriculture Department.

As a first step, two cycles of soil tests have been conducted in the state and soil health cards have been issued to farmers. Government programmes are emphasising the need to feed soil with the right secondary nutrients and micronutrients. Efforts have also featured the revival of regenerative agricultural practices centred around millets and pulses.

However, many farmers have not received soil health cards. In fact, a number of them are still not aware of the need for soil testing.

“The government should design schemes that enable farmers to test soil and water at regular intervals. A soil test can be planned once in three years, for instance,” says groundwater expert Devaraj Reddy, who is also a member of the State Planning Board.

An officer, who did not want to be named, points at a 50 per cent vacancy in the Agriculture Department, particularly in the extension division which directly interacts with the farmers. This impedes the implementation of beneficial programmes.

“Soil degradation is not just a farmer's problem. It is everyone’s problem as healthy soil provides healthy food. We have exploited soil resources without replenishing them. This puts food production at risk,” says Indu K Murthy, Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy.

Given the widespread nature of nutrient depletion in soil, the government has initiated several reclamation projects. However, high cost requirements and limited funds meant slow implementation of soil reclamation projects in the initial years. “The Union government has recently allocated Rs 1.25 lakh to treat black saline soil and Rs 67,000 to treat red saline soil as incentives. This should help expedite the reclamation of soil,” says M V Venkatesh, commissioner, Watershed Development Department. “Problematic soil is spread across an area of 2.42 lakh ha of land in arid lands. We have revived 2,427 ha of land by installing surface drainage systems,” he says.

Soil health

A healthy soil is a living, dynamic ecosystem teeming with microscopic and larger organisms that perform many vital functions, including:

Converting dead and decaying matter as well as minerals to plant nutrients Controlling plant disease, weeds and pests Improving soil structure with positive effects for water and nutrient holding capacity Mitigating climate change by maintaining or increasing its carbon content.

Soil pollution

Unsustainable agricultural practices can reduce soil organic matter and facilitate the transfer of pollutants into the food chain. Polluted soil can release contaminants into the groundwater, which goes on to accumulate in plant tissue, and is then passed to grazing animals, birds and finally to the humans who eat the plants and animals.

Soil as a component of SDGs

Zero hunger or SDG2 connects soils, food production and healthy living directly. Indirectly, soil performs other ecosystem services that link with goals such as no poverty, good health and well-being, clean water and sanitation, climate action, and life on land.