Whenever people’s attention is drawn to the undeveloped sugarcane plants in Babar Kamble’s fields in the Indian state of Maharashtra, he tells them: “My fields are slowly growing. die.
It all started in 2014 when for the first time Kamble ji's farm production dropped by 5 tonnes from the 80 tonnes he produced on his one acre farm. They ignored the year's production, thinking it might have been due to bad weather. But a 10 metric ton drop next year worries them.
“I thought that increasing the use of chemical fertilizers would help increase yields,” he recalls, “but the effect only lasted two years. He kept increasing the amount of chemical fertilizers until it reached 1,000 kilograms per acre. This was the first time he used it in 2014 More than three times the 300 kilograms. But the effect was contrary to his expectations. The output continued to decline again, and the output of Kamble ji farm was only 35 tons in 2023, which was a 56% decrease from 2013.
“I have been farming since my childhood, but I have never heard of such a huge decline,” said 54-year-old Kamble ji, whose farm is located in Shirdhon village in Maharashtra state.
The problem is salt
Some fertilizers contain large amounts of salt, such as potassium chloride or ammonium sulfate. Overspraying of such fertilizers can cause damage to crops by adding salt to the soil.
In India, the soil has become very salty. The main causes are rising sea levels, severe flooding and a lack of sufficient rainfall to wash away salt from the soil. According to the Fertilizer Association of India, due to worsening weather, farmers' fertilizer consumption surged by 95% between 2000 and 2021, reaching a record high of 32,050 tons.
Despite increased irrigation and the use of more fertilizers, farmers are unable to earn enough income to repay growing debt as crop yields decline. The issues may seem intractable, but some farmers see better opportunities in permaculture practices, innovative but expensive underground pipe systems, or growing crops that require less water.
70 One hundred thousand hectares of land turned into saline-alkali land
“When I was helping my father as a kid, I used only organic fertilizers like animal manure, compost and crop scraps,” Kamble ji said. But now, “if I don’t use chemical fertilizers, my crops don’t grow. As I add more The more fertilizer I use, the more salty my soil becomes and I get stuck in this vicious cycle.
Kamble Ji told reporters that he fears “in a few years my farm will become a wasteland”.
Other farmers in India are in a similar predicament. Soil has been degraded on 1.47 billion hectares of land in India, an area approximately 1,875 times the size of New York. Among them, about 7 million hectares of soil have been degraded due to salinization, and about 10% of the land is turning into saline-alkali land every year. Experts estimate that at this rate, almost half of farmland will become saline-alkali land by 2050.
Climate change is the biggest culprit. In a warming world, melting glaciers cause sea levels to rise, adding to soil salinity as salt water seeps into coastal areas. Since 1880, global mean sea level has risen 8 to 9 inches.
“Due to climate change, the winter monsoon is becoming drier in some areas,” explained Fabien Durand, a senior scientist at the Institut de Développement of the French Space Geophysical and Oceanographic Research Laboratory, which means that the amount of rainfall during this period has already increased. Reduce, further reduce. “Normally, this rain helps wash away the salt water.” The low rainfall means “there is nothing to stop the salt water from flowing in from the ocean.”
Increased flooding events further exacerbate the problem of rising sea levels and increased use of chemical fertilizers. A 2019 study found that salt levels in the topmost layers of soil increased after short-term flooding events, but were eventually washed away by heavy rains.
Between 2015 and 2020, floods in India destroyed crops on 34,080 hectares of farmland, affecting more than 218 million people. Rapid floods and prolonged droughts lead to the release and redistribution of salts in groundwater, increasing the risk of soil salinization in more parts of India.
In 2019 and 2021, Kamble and other farmers had their fields flooded for about a month before facing long dry days.
Recalling the 2021 floods, Kamble ji's wife Sarita ji said, “There was at least 22 feet of water in our fields and we were unable to enter the fields for a month.”
About 11 kilometers away from Kamble ji farm, there is a farm of farmer Rajendra Kumar Chougule ji in Akiwat village in Maharashtra, which is famous for its black alluvial soil and good organic materials. The agricultural expert was surprised to find that the sugarcane crop in his three-acre field that had been growing for 10 months had grown just one foot in 10 months.
“Ideally, its height should be at least 5 to 7 feet now,” said 61-year-old Chougule ji.
In order to increase production faster, “I used a lot of chemical fertilizers, even sprayed chemical pesticides, and weeded in time, but it had no effect.” He blamed the salinity of the soil, which began to damage the farms in his village ten years ago. , and affected more than 200 local farmers.
Falling groundwater levels lead to rising debt
Chowgule ji said although the floods were intermittent, the groundwater level had dropped due to drought, so they had to dig wells.
“Almost every farmer here has a borehole that's at least 400 feet deep,” he said.
These rapidly increasing heat waves are depleting water sources, forcing farmers to pump large amounts of groundwater. As water tables drop, groundwater becomes salty due to rising sea levels, contaminating the once fresh groundwater.
When the water beneath crops begins to recede, plants begin to draw water from deeper layers of soil, and salts dissolved in groundwater begin to move toward the surface. As temperatures rise, more water evaporates from the soil surface, leaving salt behind in the topsoil.
Fertilizers and chemical pesticides also run into rivers or dissolve in the soil and then reach groundwater, and the same water is then used on crops, which further increases the salinity of the soil.
A 2023 study found that a 1°C rise in average temperatures was associated with reduced groundwater infiltration during the monsoon and increased groundwater extraction in winter, despite the positive impact of rainfall causing water levels to rise.
If this trend continues, a 1°C increase in monsoon and winter temperatures could cause groundwater in India to plummet by 8 to 36 centimeters per year. It is estimated that groundwater levels in India will decline at more than three times the current rate between 2041 and 2080 as groundwater depletion intensifies due to climate change.
As losses mounted, farmers became increasingly reliant on loans, which became difficult to repay as crop yields declined. Kamble ji took a loan of INR 1,27,000 (USD 1,525). The government recovers loans from the sugarcane that farmers send to factories.
“Even after selling all the sugarcane, I still owe the bank 79,000 rupees ($947) for the loan,” he said.
In India, soil salinity and alkalinity (a specific type of soil salinity problem) damages 160.8 million metric tons of crops annually, causing losses of US$2.76 billion. As soil salinity increased, so did Kamburgi's debt, which adversely affected his mental, physical and financial health. He had no choice but to find another way out and found a job as a guard in a factory 27 kilometers away from home.
Permaculture Solutions
Some believe the solution to this crisis will come from changes in farming methods or even careful consideration of crop selection. About 10 kilometers away from Kamble ji farm is the three-acre farm of Narayan Gaikwad ji, who is famous for his permaculture.
Gaikwad ji, 77, has been farming for more than 60 years and uses organic fertilizers.
“Although its use results in lower yields, it keeps my soil healthy,” he said. He and his wife Kusum, 66, also grow various indigenous millet varieties such as ragi and bajra. Crops such as sugar cane and rice consume large amounts of water and are highly sensitive to saline soils.
Producing one ton of sugar cane requires approximately 250 tons of water, while millet only requires 20 centimeters of rainfall and can grow even in saline-alkali land. They do not require any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, which prevents salt leaching.
Despite this, most farmers in India prefer to grow sugarcane because there is a guaranteed procurement system that ensures farmers can earn a meager income. But to continue doing so, they must address soil waterlogging and runoff drainage, which increases salinity. Some people are turning to underground drainage systems that use underground pipes to help remove excess salt from the root zone of plants. Farmers in Akivat and many other villages in western Maharashtra have found the method useful, but Chogulraj, who has yet to adopt it, said few farmers can afford it.
Farmers in Vietnam's Mekong Delta adopt rice-shrimp rotation farming as another innovative approach. They grow rice during the rainy season when fresh water is available and shrimp during the dry season. Shrimp adds nutrients to the soil and helps reduce the use of chemical fertilizers in rice farming. Furthermore, Fabian Durand suggested, “In coastal areas, farmers can adopt salt-tolerant rice varieties, but the seeds are expensive.”
Kamble ji and Chougule ji think about how to save the soil every day, Kamble ji said, “My father always told me that soil is your wealth. I never took it seriously but today, when I see the salt in the soil around After a while, I understood what he meant.
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