Save Soil Movement: 15 significant facts you must know
Did you know one teaspoon of soil contains more living organisms than there are people in the world?
FollowAfter being on the road for 70 days, Spiritual leader Sadhguru will arrive at Jamnagar, Gujarat on May 29 for the final leg of the Save Soil journey in India. Over the last two months, Sadhguru has travelled across the world on a bike with one message -- save soil. In his own words, "Soil is quite literally the mother of biodiversity on this planet. Without rich soil, there is no possibility of biodiversity. It is the womb that births life on this planet."
Let us take a look at 15 significant facts you must know about soil:
1) At least 95 per cent of the food we eat comes from the soil.
2) Increasing organic matter in the top six inches of soil by one per cent holds 20,000 gallons more water per acre.
3) Soil degradation negatively impacts 3.2 billion people around the world.
4) In a single gram of healthy soil, one can find 100 million to 1 billion bacteria and 100,000 to 1 million fungi, which support the plant's growth and health.
5) By 2050, 90 per cent of Earth's soils could be degraded, unless we act now.
6) Increasing soil organic content from 0.5 to 3 per cent will double the water retained by the soil.
7) Twenty per cent of the planet's vegetation has suffered a fall in productivity due to declining soil fertility.
8) Sixty per cent of the world's population is deficient in nutrients like iron due to a lack of nutrients in food and soils.
9) One teaspoon of soil contains more living organisms than there are people in the world. There are around 10,000- 50,000 microbe species within a single teaspoon of healthy soil.
10) All of the world's topsoil could be gone within 60 years. Around 12 million hectares of topsoil are lost every year across the world. That's almost the size of the entire nation of Greece.
11) Soil is the source of water for 90% of the world's agriculture. But 52 per cent of agricultural soil has already degraded.
12) Many widely-used antibiotics originated from soil microbes. That includes the world's first antibiotic penicillin.
13) The presence of earthworms can increase yields by 43-350%
14) Foodgrain production can increase by 1.3% every year if Carbon in soil is increased by just 0.4%
15) According to UN estimates, revitalising soil can lower humanity's current annual Greenhouse Gas emissions by 25-35 per cent.
(With inputs from Isha Foundation)
