Soil regeneration need of the hour — Sadhguru

AMMAN — Sounding a clarion call to make soil regeneration a top policy priority, Indian spiritual leader Sadhguru arrived in Jordan on Monday as part of his 30,000km motorbike journey from London to India.

Sadhguru, who is also the founder of the Isha Foundation, kicked off his 100-day motorbike journey on March 21 to “save soil”, a mission he launched to address the soil crisis by rallying support among people and urging leaders to institute policies to enhance the organic content in cultivable soil, according to the foundation’s website.

According to the UN desertification agency, up to 40 per cent of the planet’s soil is degraded. It also warned of “additional degradation of an area almost the size of South America” by 2050 if inaction continues.

India’s Ambassador to Jordan welcomed Sadhguru at the port city of Aqaba on Monday.

Speaking during an interactive session organised by the Indian embassy in Amman on Wednesday, Sadhguru urged his audience to “raise their voices” for soil.

Highlighting the positive response the movement has gained in Jordan, India’s Ambassador to Jordan Anwar Haleem noted that “save soil” is not a mere campaign but is “the integration of human beings with soil, as our lives are fully dependent on it”.

The ambassador also noted that the spiritual leader’s visit to the Kingdom coincides with “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, an initiative by the government to mark the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.

Sadhguru also called for offering incentives for farmers to enhance soil’s organic content, noting that this doesn’t mean reducing fertiliser use, which will severely reduce food production.

“Organic content in soil is different between countries. Nobody is near 3 per cent. It is not the ideal, it is the minimum,” he said.

“We can address a certain amount of the solution on a national scale, but the rest of it has to be addressed on a global scale. It need not be a coordinated policy but can be individual, but it has to be shared. This is why UN conventions are important; so that there is a common direction in which we go,” Sadhguru told The Jordan Times.

“If we keep the soil healthy, 800 per cent more water can be held in the soil than all the rivers in the planet put together,” he continued.

“There are many issues in every country, I am not saying they are not important, but is it very important first to stay alive and then address other questions.”