After bike-ride through 26 nations, Sadhguru enters India with 'Save Soil' message

In India, Sadhguru will ride through 9 states over 25 days to create awareness over the need to 'Save Soil'

<I>Photograph: Save Soil Movement/Twitter</I>

After crisscrossing Europe and the Middle East and visiting 26 nations on a motorcycle journey, Sadhguru will enter India and ride through nine states over 25 days

While addressing a Save Soil event in the French capital Paris, Isha Foundation's founder Sadhguru said that the time for talking, preaching and campaigning is over. "We have come to a place where if there is no significant policy change in all the nations, we cannot really make it happen," he said.

He was referring to the race against time to stop the desertification of the earth, an impending disaster looming large on the planet as fertile soil is rapidly turning into sand.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that desertification could lead to a 40% drop in food production by 2045 even as the world's population crosses 9 billion. The impact of the crisis -- to say the least -- puts food security at risk unfolding a humanitarian crisis of diabolical proportions. After all, can we expect civilized behaviour amongst people not having food to eat?

Journey for Soil

Understanding the criticality of the situation and urgently trying to halt and reverse soil degradation, on March 21, 2022, Sadhguru, as part of his Save Soil Movement, embarked on a lone motorcycle journey passing through Europe, the Middle East, and India. 

The movement seeks to raise citizen awareness across countries and urge administrations to urgently formulate soil-friendly policies to save soil in their countries. Throughout his journey, Sadhguru has been conducting public events and interacting with elected representatives, policymakers, scientists, influencers, media, and citizens across the world to mobilize support and describe solutions to Save Soil. 

Solutions to Save Soil

The primary objective of the movement is to urge governments to ensure that agricultural lands contain a minimum of 3-6 per cent organic content. Without this, global food and water security would be threatened as all agricultural soil will rapidly degenerate and turn lifeless. 

Speaking more about the overarching objective, Sadhguru presented a three-pronged strategy while addressing representatives from 195 nations at the 15th session of the Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). 

In his address, Sadhguru batted to make it aspirational for farmers to achieve a minimum threshold of 3-6% organic content by providing attractive incentives for getting to this threshold. 

"We need to facilitate carbon credit incentives for farmers," added Sadhguru calling for significant simplification of the current process which he deemed are far too complex. 

Addressing his third strategy he explained the 'need to develop a mark of superior quality for food grown from Soils that have the target 3-6% organic content level.' This, according to him, would hold more meaning than the current method of distinguishing produce as organic or non-organic.

Save Soil journey milestones

The 100 days, 30000 km journey of Sadhguru which began in London, UK has since then passed through several European and Middle East countries. Several nations including the 7 Caribbean nations, Azerbaijan, Romania, and UAE have signed memorandums of understanding with 'Save Soil' to enact policies to safeguard soil. 

The 54 Commonwealth of Nations, as well as the European Union and several pan-European organizations including the French government’s “4 per 1000” initiative to mitigate climate change, have come forward to support the Save Soil movement. 

Also pledging their support was the Muslim World League, one of the most influential international non-governmental Islamic organizations. Besides this, international organizations like the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union of Conservation of Nations (IUCN) have come forward to partner with the movement. 

In India, politicians and leaders from across a spectrum of parties in India have wholeheartedly endorsed the movement, including the Congress, BJP, AAP, TRS, BJD, SP, and Shiv Sena. Over half a million students have written letters to the ministers in India, requesting them to take action for soil regeneration. 

A host of celebrities from Ajay Devgn, R Madhavan, Ranbir Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, and Juhi Chawla to cricketers Harbhajan Singh, AB de Villiers, Matthew Hayden, and many others have come forward to stand behind the movement. 

Save Soil arriving in India

Scientific data put forth by the United Nations agencies suggests that agricultural soil on the planet was good enough for about 100 more crops. 

According to the UNCCD, if land degradation continues at current rates, 90% of the planet could turn into a desert by 2050 - less than three decades from now. We are at a cusp of time where we can address soil and take corrective measures. If we are to wait for another 20-30 years, it would be too late for us to reverse the damage.

In democratic nations, the voice of the people becomes the mandate of the elected government. Therefore, the solution to the issue intrinsically lies in people unitedly raising their voices to impress upon governments to enact policy changes. 

To further amplify the message of the movement, Sadhguru after completing his journey across 26 nations will be arriving in India at Jamnagar, Gujarat at the end of this month and will ride through 9 states over 25 days. Time to raise our voice to Save our Soil. 

Text input: Isha Foundation