Health of the soil matters. Soil is not a dead matter, but a living being. It can be healthy or unhealthy, injured or killed: Aldo Leopold

World Environment Day is celebrated worldwide on the 5th of June every year. The theme for World Environment Day this year is “Land Restoration, Desertification, and Drought Resilience.” These all are associated with the health of the land. They signify the condition when the health of the land is not good; rather, it is pretty bad. Land, being a natural resource, is being taken for granted and is overexploited or misused for short-term benefits. The unsustainable use of the land results in land degradation, one subtype of which is land desertification. Land, along with suitable environmental conditions, is a must as far as the food security of the world is concerned. Without taking due care of the health of the land, food security can’t be achieved.
With the population of human beings on the rise, the pressure on the land to feed more and more souls is also increasing. The production of staple food grains can be increased either by increasing the productivity per unit area of the land or by bringing more land area under cultivation. The productivity of the land can’t be increased beyond some point. Further, increasing productivity is being done by using high-yield varieties, inorganic pesticides, and fertilizers. These practices are degrading the soil in the long run. The productivity could be enhanced at the cost of degradation of the land quality. So the best option available is to bring more land under cultivation.
Now the question is: do we have the land available which could be cultivated? The answer is partly yes. The land is available. But the land is not cultivable as of now. But it could be made cultivable. Such lands, which are not cultivatable due to the presence of some deficiencies or deformities, are called wastelands or problem soils. These lands can be waterlogged soils, ravines, saline soils, degraded grasslands, steep slopes, mining lands, snow-covered lands, etc. One approach to correct wastelands is land restoration, which is part of this year’s theme for WED. Land restoration is the process in which the degraded land is restored to the earlier state or some other state to meet the intended purpose. Land restoration is an important tool for bringing more and more land under cultivation, hence increasing the area of land under cultivation. Land restoration would help reverse the process of degradation which has been taking place for a long. It would ensure that wastelands are converted into useful lands which are used for the production of food grains. With an increasing population, land restoration is becoming a must to ensure that food security is achieved.
Furthermore, it is to be ensured that no lands are further becoming wastelands. There are a plethora of factors responsible for converting fertile lands into wastelands. These factors need to be checked. All such factors which could result in the degradation of the land need to be eliminated. Some factors which are responsible for land degradation are:
Excessive use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides
Excessive irrigation of the croplands
Unscientific tilling practices
Wind erosion
Extraction of minerals
Overgrazing
Deforestation
Such factors need to be checked. Otherwise, there would be a loss of land. The land is a nonrenewable resource for human purposes, as its rate of formation is very slow. It takes thousands of years to form a few inches of soil. So the careless use of land should be avoided. It is an important life-supporting system. Without it, life on the Earth is not possible. It is a medium for the growth of the plants. The importance of the soil could be understood by the land ethics of Aldo Leopold. Aldo Leopold in his land ethics, which he has written as the finale to the ”A Sand County Almanac”, stressed that land is not a nonliving entity or property, rather it is a living being. He says land is not dead matter which can be shaped in any way. As per Leopold, land should be viewed as a living being, which could be healthy or unhealthy, injured, or killed. Further, he considered land a pyramid, where land, along with millions of microbes in it, acts as a base, followed by plants, birds, insects, and other forms of life at the apex.
The other component of the theme of World Environment Day is desertification. Desertification is a type of land degradation where the productive potential of the land is continuously on the decline. Land desertification is occurring in all types of ecosystems. The point is the productive potential of the land is declining. It could be happening in forest ecosystems, grasslands, agricultural lands, and even deserts. The deserts already have low productive potential; if it is further decreasing, it is desertification in deserts. Factors like overgrazing, deforestation, quarrying of rocks, dumping of wastes, particularly industrial wastes, mining, pollution, etc., are contributing to the process of desertification. It is a thing of concern, as it is spreading very fast. Millions of hectares of land are undergoing desertification. So the productive land is diminishing day by day. Desertification is converting productive land ecosystems into barren lands. Steps are to be taken to arrest the land desertification processes.
The last component of the theme of this year’s World Environment Day is “drought resilience.” It is the need of the hour. Among the other effects of climate change, is drought. Drought is a condition where water resources are scarce to such an extent that the land has too little moisture to support the growth of the plants. Every year different parts of the world are facing drought-like situations. It is ever-increasing. It looks like the droughts are only going to get worse in the future. So steps are required to be taken to avoid altogether drought-like situations, which seems almost impossible. But steps could be taken to lessen the impact of droughts on humans, plants, animals, and the environment. Water-intensive crops are required to be replaced by drought-resistant crops.
Further, the water harvesting structures are required to be placed wherever possible so that more and more water can be stored, which could then be used during drought-like situations. Further, the loss of soil moisture by insolation should be prevented as far as possible. This could be possible by mulching the fields. The wastage of water should be avoided. Steps should be taken to make sure that each drop of water is being put to some use. The wastewater treatment plants should be installed wherever required. As we go into the future, water will become the new petrol. As its demand keeps rising, the resources will remain the same. In short, drought resilience has to be ensured through farming and other related practices.
Tailpiece: “Land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience,” the theme of World Environment Day 2024, is the need of mankind. It is high time to highlight the importance of land restoration, prevention of desertification, and drought resilience to ensure that the food security of humans is met. Otherwise, starvation, conflicts, and malnourishment will become the order of the day. For the better future of mankind and other fauna and flora, the health of the land has to be ensured. Otherwise, we are doomed.
The writer can be reached at [email protected]

Manzoor Ahmad Bhat