Soil is the mother of life. oil is the universe’s largest living entity, supporting millions of living micro-organisms, trees, agriculture, and everything else required for sustaining life. Yet, only 40-60 years worth of soil is left today for agriculture, according to Sadhguru, who has launched ‘Save Soil Movement’ in 27 countries to preserve soil and nature for future generations under the aegis of Isha Foundation.
Soil is a material composed of minerals, organic matter, living organisms, gas, and water. Soil organic matter, which is plant, animal, and microbial residues in various states of decomposition, is a critical ingredient in a soil which is one of the indicators of agricultural soil quality. At least 3% organic content should be present in the soil to grow plants.
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According to Sadhguru, the world is on the verge of soil extinction. Whatever soil we have today is capable of producing food with less nutrients compared to the soil that we had hundred years ago. And if the soil nutrients are eroded the earth will produce 40% less food by 2045, when there will be approximately 9.5 billion people to feed.
The majority of Goa’s soil is laterites rich in ferric-aluminum oxides and reddish, with sandy areas along the coast. Further inland and along the riverbanks, the soil is mostly alluvial and loamy in the Khazans, where rice cultivation has been practised for millennia. In the past, the Portuguese scientifically planned the Khazan lands for both paddy cultivation and aquaculture and pisciculture, which worked in tandem. Most land belongs to the Comunidades that has been tenanted in Goa for the sole purpose of agriculture.
According to the agriculture census 2015-16, Goa’s farming has decreased by more than 28%. Due to many factors, ranging from rapid urbanisation to cattle destroying the fields to high labour costs, large tracts of fertile land have been left fallow. Rice cultivation is also uneconomical in Goa due to fragmented land holding. According to the 2000-2011 agriculture census, the average size of operational land holdings decreased from 1.33 ha in 2000-01 to 1.15 ha in 2010-11. In areas close to towns, agricultural land is increasingly alienated from traditional owners and commodified and directed towards non-agricultural use due to pressure of increasing population and the surge in tourism.
Goa began open-cast mining in 1949. Mechanised mining took off in the 1970s, and Goa’s red earth literally transformed into a playground for many players. The open-cast method of extracting iron and manganese ore resulted in massive dumps/rejects. For every tonne of ore excavated, approximately three tonnes of rejects are produced.
When sustainable mining was practised, the fields adjacent to the mining area produced rice, chilli, kokum, beans, mango, cashews, and coconut trees. The mining companies have been excavating and degrading the land for over 40 years, with minimum/no checks and balances, poor bandhs, and uncovered dumps.
According to S T Puttaraju’s research, the number of cultivators and agricultural workers in Goa fell from 86,201 in 2001 to 58,114 in 2011, owing to the diversion of agricultural land for mining and siltation, which renders the fields useless. Out of the 151 farmers interviewed for the study, 71% reported a decrease in paddy yields, blaming it on siltation and insufficient irrigation.
The intrusion of saline water into khazan land has degraded the quality of soil in the paddy fields of Neura, St Cruz-Merces, and many other locations in Salcete, denying farmers the opportunity to grow crops. The fields are completely submerged in some places due to breached embankments that were supposed to regulate and essentially block the entry of river water into the fields. Since the field remained fallow for nearly a decade, they have been transformed into a mangrove forest. It is alleged that people who are involved in sluice gate fishing release saline water into the fields bringing them under more profitable intensive aquaculture. Since a long time, nearly 90% of the fields in the aforementioned places have been submerged under saline water. By restricting the distribution of oxygen and nutrients in the water, seawater intrusion increases concentration of metals in the groundwater, which has an impact on aquatic life in the soil (indiawaterportal.org).
A similar issue occurs upstream in Canacona along the Galgibaga river bank, rendering fields uncultivable. Velim farmers face saltwater intrusion because their sluice gates are either not properly maintained/neglected, according to media reports. The largest, low-lying khazan fields in Carambolim are currently in jeopardy due to saltwater inundation caused by breach of bundhs. In other places, including Taleigão, fields remain flooded for weeks because the drainage channels, which were build since time immemorial, are either blocked by debris/concrete structures or are not properly maintained.
Modern agriculture mostly relies on various inputs such as pesticides, chemical fertilisers (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium), improved seeds, and herbicides.
If the embankments that regulate saline water are strengthened to arrest soil salinisation, channels that drain out excess rain water and washout from mining dumps are constructed and maintained, and community farming through organic route is practised, there is a potential of meeting the ambitious Aatmanirbhar Bharat Swayampoorna Goa targets.
Taking advantage of the schemes formulated for farmers by the Goa Agriculture Department such as subsidy for fencing, every village with large tracts of fallow land can become self-reliant in agriculture and horticulture production.
(The author is a senior scientist researching on climate change issues and a freelancer from Taleigão)
