Correlation between soil health and consumer health

An important lesson learnt from the Green Revolution is to focus on soil health as the key indicator to prevent indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides. Distribution of 4 lakh Soil Health Cards (SHC) among farmers in Assam is a timely initiative to curb excessive use of chemicals in agriculture while boosting production to achieve self-sufficiency. The Green Revolution launched in the 1960s prioritised boosting agricultural production for achieving the country’s self-reliance in grain production. Introduction of high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat in states like Punjab and Haryana and supplementing farming with mechanisation helped achieve the primary objective, but excessive use of chemicals adversely affected soil health. Contamination of underground water also had serious health hazards and reportedly gave rise to cancer cases in many villages covered by the Green Revolution. It was in 2014-15 when the Central Government launched the SHC scheme to assist the states in issuing these cards to all farmers in the country. The SHC provides information to farmers on the nutrient status of soil on their plots of farmland. It also recommends appropriate dosages of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and fertility, which are crucial for boosting production. The scheme was later subsumed under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana as the Soil Health and Fertility scheme in 2022–23. The scheme envisages judicious use of chemical fertilisers, including secondary ones and micronutrients, along with organic and biofertilisers for maintenance and improvement of soil health and productivity. Strengthening of soil testing laboratories and quality control laboratories for fertilisers are key components of the scheme. The increase in the number of soil testing laboratories in the state from five to 26 has strengthened the soil testing capacity of the state, but awareness among farmers is crucial to ensuring their optimal utilization. The presence of harmful chemical residues in vegetables supplied has been dominating the public discourse. However, an effective measure to detect supplies of such contaminated vegetables to markets in Guwahati and other places is yet to be in place despite a directive by the Gauhati High Court on a Public Interest Litigation to make an effective attempt to control the entry of highly contaminated vegetables containing unacceptable chemicals in Guwahati markets. The Court also directed the state government to initiate measures to prevent highly contaminated vegetables containing unacceptable chemicals from being available in other parts of the state. Follow-up action by the state government brought to the fore the inadequacy of testing ecosystems, including the availability of on-the-spot testing kits given the size of markets and rising volume of supplies. This reinforces the need for curbing excessive use of chemicals right from the farming stage through the SHC route. The SHC being an information tool, use of the information by farmers holding it is voluntary in nature. The awareness among farmers is critical to making effective use of the card in deciding how much chemical they should use to balance production surge and maintenance of soil health. Therefore, the distribution of the cards being followed up with an extensive awareness drive is crucial to achieving the desired objective. The SHC scheme must cover all farmers in the state, or else the farmers not reached out will continue to depend on the advisories of retailers of fertilisers and other chemicals for determining the doses they need to apply for a higher yield. As retailers of fertilisers and other chemicals seek to make maximum profit, they recommend higher doses so that they can sell more. The farmers, in the absence of proper scientific knowledge, tend to follow the unscientific advice of those retailers. This results in excessive use of chemicals in farming fields, leading to health hazards from residual presence in agricultural produce exceeding permissible limits and deterioration of soil health adversely impacting subsequent production. The distribution of SHC and awareness drive need to be followed up with periodically visiting cardholders to ascertain that they have made use of the recommendation included in the card for scientific and proper application of chemicals. Strengthening the regulatory measures to curb excessive use of chemicals, as directed by the Gauhati High Court, is equally important to punish those greedy producers who wilfully use excessive chemicals to increase production without caring for public health. Boosting production is crucial for the self-reliance of the state and augmenting farmers’ income, but it cannot be at the cost of becoming a health hazard for consumers. Awareness among consumers on the harmful effects of excess amounts of chemicals in food produce also needs to be raised so that demand for safe agricultural production can send across a strong message against excess use of chemicals in the name of increasing production and productivity. Imparting training to community volunteers on usage of SHC will help strengthen monitoring, as it is not possible for the Agriculture Department to reach out to every farmer with limited staff strength.