Improving Soil Biological Health

Soil health is about the capacity of soil to function as a vital living system, sustaining plants, animals and the broader ecosystem. India’s soil health has been on the decline, driven by factors such as the overuse and imbalanced use of fertilisers, intensive and chemical-dependent agronomic practices, and topsoil erosion. At the core of this crisis lies the often-overlooked dimension of soil biological health, which is fundamental to restoring the soil’s overall function.

Data from the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme and long-term experiments of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) confirm a nationwide crisis of multi-nutrients and soil organic carbon (SOC) deficiency. Besides, the SHC scheme is currently limited by its near-exclusive focus on chemical parameters, thereby not capturing the true sense of soil biological health.

We invite you to a webinar to discuss this issue in the backdrop of a new report released by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) - Improving Soil Biological Health: The role of biological components and monitoring approaches.

The report presents the need to focus on biological health of the soil and monitor it as part of routine national-level monitoring. It also provides suggestions on the way forward. The webinar will gather insights and perspectives of key experts and stakeholders on the subject.

FOR MORE DETAILS, PLEASE CONTACT

RAJESHWARI SINHA
Email: s_rajeshwari@cseindia.org
Mobile: +91 9990187023