Editorial 1 : Healing the soil
Introduction: In the recently held Conference of Party 28 (COP28) in Dubai, agriculture is brought into the measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions. India did not sign the agreement over the fear that it could lead to significant changes in agricultural policies and farming practices.
How human population growth has surpassed the carrying capacity of the earth?
- The demands for feeding the rising human population are responsible for much of the biodiversity loss on this planet.
- It took homo sapiens more than 2,00,000 years to become one billion in 1804.
- But the next billion was added in just 123 years by 1927. And now, within less than 100 years, humanity has multiplied from two billion to more than eight billion.
- No wonder if humanity had to be saved from the mass famines and starvation deaths, farming had to be done on large swathes of land, clearing forests.
- In that race against hunger, several species and genetic diversity have been lost.
- But even large parcels of land under cultivation through traditional and organic methods could not have saved humanity.
- As Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, once said, this planet can four billion people at the most on its own.
- If science had not come to rescue the situation, many would have starved to death.
The problem is not the production of food, but the supply of food
- The Green Revolution, based on high-yielding varieties, irrigation, chemical fertiliser and pesticides did produce more food than humanity needs today.
- In fact, as per FAO, 30 per cent of the food produced never reaches our stomachs due to high food losses in the journey from harvest to retail and high waste at the consumer end.
- So, there is no dearth of food supplies, though access to food is an income issue.
- To ensure that people do not die of hunger, each country has to devise its own policies.
- India has the largest food subsidy programme in the world, the PM-Garib Kalyan Yojana, under which 813 million people get free rice/wheat.
The faulty agriculture policies must be addressed
- The issue of harming the planet by inappropriate policies has, however, remained largely unaddressed.
1. Subsidising unsustainable use of fertilisers
- The policy of heavily subsidizing the use of chemical fertilizers, especially urea, has led to skewed use of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P) and potash (K).
- The soils have been damaged and are starving for organic carbon.
- The optimal level of soil organic carbon (SOC) as per the World Food Laureate, Rattan Lal, should be between 1.5 to 2 per cent.
- The reality of Indian soils, however, is that more than 60 per cent have SOC of less than 0.5 per cent.
- Our soils are literally in the ICU, but our policymakers appear to be blind to it.
- Mere slogans of prakritik kheti or natural farming are not going to bring our soils out of ICU.
- We need to change our policies, especially those of chemical fertiliser subsidies.
- A simple directional change from heavily subsidising the pricing of N, P and K to direct income transfer to farmers and then letting the prices of N, P and K be decided by the market forces can change a lot.
- But this needs advance preparations in terms of land records of farmers, the crops they are growing, irrigation, etc.
- But all this can be done, if one is serious about saving soils.
2. The rampant exploitation of groundwater
- In most states, groundwater level is depleting.
- In Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, the situation is particularly serious, largely because free power for irrigation, minimum support prices and open-ended procurement of paddy (rice) have encouraged rampant groundwater exploitation.
- All this has led to an ecological disaster in this belt with the water table receding year by year, and paddy fields emitting carbon at the rate of almost 5 tons/ha.
3. The loss of crop diversity
- The faulty policies of fertilisers subsidies, and groundwater exploitations are leading to the loss of crop diversity.
- For example, in 1960 in Punjab, only 4.8 per cent of the cropped area was under rice.
- Today, it is more than 40 per cent, displacing maize, millets, pulses and many oilseeds.
- Successful high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat also lead to loss of varietal diversity.
- India, with only 2.4 per cent of the world’s geographical area, 4 per cent of global freshwater resources, and 18 per cent of the world’s population, is under huge stress, be it its soils, water, air (GHG emissions) or biodiversity.
Conclusion: It is time to make food systems climate resilient, arrest groundwater depletion, reduce GHG emissions, and reward biodiversity.
Editorial 2 : Cries for help
Introduction: The alleged death by suicide of at least seven students, six of them girls, in different parts of Telangana after the declaration of intermediate results is another grim reminder that despite several progressive interventions in recent years, much work needs to be done to alleviate the anxieties of the country’s youth.
State agencies’ efforts to reduce the stress of students
- The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education had arranged for counsellors for students in junior colleges to deal with exam-related stress.
- State government representatives had also asked students to not be dejected by adverse results and make use of the supplementary examinations.
- However, the loss of young lives speaks of serious systemic shortcomings that cannot be mitigated by reaching out to students just before the examinations.
The extent of student suicide in India
- Year after year NCRB data has provided significant pointers about the stress faced by students.
- In 2022 according to the Bureau, over 13,044 Indian students ended their lives — 7.6 per cent of the total suicide fatalities in that year.
- The data shows a 70 per cent increase in the number of students who took their lives in the last decade.
Factors responsible for fanning suicidal behaviour among youth in India
- Suicidal behaviour is, the culmination of several factors.
- It’s no secret, however, that competition pressures and burdens of parental expectations take a toll on the well-being of students — this is especially so because today, more than ever before, diverse sections of people see academic excellence as a ticket to a better life.
- Schools, too, are harbingers of the competitive mentality and teachers push their wards to higher levels of performance.
- This routine disincentivises a child from searching for meaning in what is taught, encourages rote learning and pushes the young to coaching centres where the demands are even more punishing.
- Instead of being empathetic tests of the student’s aptitude, examinations continue to be purveyors of a ruthless elimination system that dehumanises the learners and drives many of those who fail to make the cut to despondency.
- Designing flexible evaluation mechanisms for school goers, one of the objectives of NEP, 2020, is at an early stage.
- The endeavour requires greater urgency.
The New Education Policy (NEP) is a start, but more is to be done
- Emotional well-being is a key part of the NEP’s thrust on creating an enabling atmosphere for students.
- However, most schools today aren’t equipped to recognise a cry for help.
- Round-the-year support systems that enhance the resilience and coping skills of students — especially those from marginalised communities — are extremely rare in the Indian school-education landscape.
- Educationists have also emphasised the importance of counseling parents and teachers.
- For long, it has been clear that the grueling system does not prepare the student for the country’s economic realities.
- At the same time, the expansion of the economic pie hasn’t kept pace with the rise in aspirations.
Conclusion: The manifestos of most political parties in the ongoing elections seem to be cognisant of the existing deficit between the expansion of the economy and the rising aspiration of youth. The urgent task after June 4 will be to translate words into action and make sure that the system doesn’t fail its young.