Mumbai: With climate change, agriculture continues to be the first and foremost sector to be majorly affected, not just in terms of crop production due to irregular weather patterns but also due to soil erosion. ‘There is no Planet B: Soil conservation’, a one day event conducted at SNDT university’s Shri Vithaldas Thackersey College of home science, in Juhu brought the focus on the impact of soil erosion and its conservation.
Soil erosion in agriculture is the loss of fertile topsoil by wind, water, or tillage, significantly reducing crop yields, damaging soil structure, and polluting waterways with sediment and nutrients, largely driven by practices like intensive plowing, deforestation, and overgrazing which leave soil exposed.
In the session, a talk by Dr. Kamal Kumar Murari, Professor at Centre for climate change and sustainability studies from Tata institute of social sciences highlighted the need of land restoration and soil conservation. “The changing climate and human activities has led to severe degradation of land in Maharashtra and other states. This in turn affects yield loss, loss of livelihood, increase in drought and flood frequency,” he said.
While another panelist, Dr. Rupa Dave talked about leveraging technology for soil conservation. “We tend to think that an acre of land parcel requires the same amount of water and fertiliser but that is not the case, different areas have varied requirements which can be identified using sensors which might efficiently help in conservation,” she said.
According to Dr. Murari, the climate action plans, policies of conservation of wetlands along with nature based infrastructure planning and ecosystem based disaster risk reduction can bring a positive change.
The event was organised on account of farmers day observed on December 23.
“Events like this bring a holistic view to the environment. While it is important to save and plant trees, it is equally important to look at other aspects such as soil and biodiversity,” said Rajeshree More, the program coordinator of SVT college.
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