India's quiet power: How soil can shape a resilient future

Time of India

30-04-2025

Praveena Sridhar is the Chief Science and Technology Officer of the Save Soil movement. She has a Master's in Environment Engineering and is a public policy expert. She has been working in the environmental sector for over 20 years. Over the years, she has worked on projects to deliver sustainable drinking water and sanitation, agriculture, and farmer welfare. LESS ... MORE
As the world marks Earth Day, India faces an urgent need not just for reflection, but recalibration. With climate volatility, declining nutritional security, rural distress, and biodiversity loss converging into a complex national challenge, the solution may lie beneath our very feet.
Soil—living, dynamic, and often overlooked—emerges as a strategic asset that can address these overlapping crises through one integrated approach.
One Root, Many Branches
India's soil health crisis is no longer invisible. According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, nearly 147 million hectares—about 37% of our land—is degraded. Alarmingly, 30% of agricultural soils are classified as severely degraded, with organic carbon levels falling below 0.5% in many regions. The economic toll is substantial: land degradation costs the Indian economy an estimated ₹3.17 lakh crore annually, nearly 2% of our GDP.
These figures are not abstract. They show up in reduced farm incomes, shrinking yields, rising input costs, and food with 15–35% fewer essential micronutrients like iron, zinc, and vitamin A. For nearly 100 million small and marginal farmers—the backbone of Indian agriculture—soil degradation is directly linked to growing debt and dwindling resilience.
Soil as a National Strategy
The appeal of soil restoration lies in its multiplier effect. Healthy soil supports thriving microbial life, anchors biodiversity, buffers against climate extremes, and produces nutrient-rich food—all while stabilizing farmer incomes and reducing public spending on inputs like chemical fertilizers, which crossed ₹1.7 lakh crore in subsidies last year.
Farmers adopting regenerative practices—from agroforestry and crop rotation to composting and reduced tillage—report 30–45% higher net incomes, along with up to 30% lower irrigation needs. The benefits go beyond economics. Soils managed with organic principles can sequester an estimated 7–10 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per hectare annually, while enhancing water retention—a crucial adaptation tool in an era of erratic monsoons.
Solution for a Nexus of Problems
The need for integrative approaches is echoed globally. Experts and policymakers now call for collaboration among the Rio Conventions on Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Desertification. Soil offers a unifying framework: addressing its health unlocks progress on all three fronts.
And India is well positioned to lead this approach. With centuries of ecological knowledge, emerging regenerative farming movements, and vast cultivated lands, we hold the tools to mainstream a Soil rejuvenation as a solution for a nexus of problems linking environmental health with economic well-being.
India has already initiated several efforts—the Soil Health Card Scheme, the National Agroforestry Policy, and the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, among others. These are important steps, and lay a robust foundation. What's needed is a systems-level redesign: one that sees soil not as an isolated environmental issue but as foundational to agricultural productivity, public health, and fiscal stability.
Reframing the Future
In an age of geopolitical uncertainties and shifting trade dynamics—such as the temporary pause on U.S. tariffs on Indian agricultural goods—self-reliance in food systems becomes not just prudent, but essential. Fertile, resilient soil is the bedrock of that independence.
As India charts its path toward sustainable development, soil should no longer remain beneath the radar. Investing in soil regeneration is not just a matter of ecological necessity—it is a pathway to economic resilience, nutritional security, and climate preparedness.
This Earth Day, it's time to stop treating soil as an afterthought and start seeing it as the strategic national asset it truly is.
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Views expressed above are the author's own.