‘Save Soil’ drive aims to boost food security

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

The ‘Save Soil’ campaign pioneered by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Indian yoga guru and proponent of spirituality, is very much in line with Bahrain’s food security initiatives, a volunteer has said.

The statement comes in the backdrop of proposed visit of Sadhguru to Bahrain as part of the global campaign he is spearheading the urgent need for concerted action to save soil.

Speaking to The Daily Tribune, a volunteer who does not want to be named said saving the Kingdom’s soil wealth is an important step as the nation aims to step up food production to achieve its self-reliance goals.

“Anyone could get a feeling that how could we improve the quality of soil when we stand in the middle of a desert. This is nothing but a lack of proper understanding. The country is among the most successful in the region in terms of boosting agricultural production.

“Latest technologies are being explored here as many Bahraini youth are taking to agriculture as a serious profession. And all these developments emphasize the urgent need to protect the Kingdom’s soil wealth,” the Bahrain resident said.

She said protection of deserts as well as its ecosystems from irreparable damages will also be one of the objectives of the campaign in the Middle East. The 100-day motorcycle journey kicked off from the United Kingdom on March 21, 2022.

The campaign will cover 30,000 km across 26 countries. “It’s extremely important that we act now. I’ve been talking about this for over 24 years, but a solution can only happen when there is positive policy in every nation,” Sadhguru told reporters before the Indian High Commission in the UK in London before setting off on his bike tour.

“It is still snowing in many parts of Europe and we’ll be going through that on a two-wheeler. At this age, it’s not really a joy ride. So why am I doing this? Because over 300,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last 20 years. Not just in India, across the world this is happening...one of the main concerns is soil depletion,” he said.

The ‘Save Soil’ movement, launched as part of the spiritual leader’s Conscious Planet initiative, is aimed at turning the world’s attention towards dying soil and growing desertification. The initiative seeks to activate and demonstrate citizen support across nations, and empower governments to initiate policy-driven action to revitalize soil and halt further degradation.

The initiative will aim to reach 3.5 billion people, which is nearly 60 per cent of the world’s electorate. In a first, six Caribbean nations took the historic first step of signing memorandums of understanding with Conscious Planet, in an expression of impassioned commitment to the Save Soil movement.

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), over 90 per cent of the earth’s soil could become degraded by 2050 leading to catastrophic crisis worldwide including food and water shortages, droughts and famines, adverse climate changes, mass migrations and unprecedented rates of species extinction. Sadhguru says this ‘soil extinction’ is the gravest threat to humanity right now, as “our planet is losing the ability to grow food because of rapid soil degradation”. Sadhguru is expected to arrive in the Kingdom on May 15, 2022.