People Are A Mirror Image Of The Land
Rattan Lal remembers sitting under a tree with his class in primary school in India when his teacher shared this Sanskrit saying: “Vasudhaiva kutumbakam”. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, and the saying means “the world is one family”. Lal lives by that philosophy.
Lal is a distinguished professor of soil science at Ohio State University and director for the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration (C-MASC). He is also a goodwill ambassador for sustainable development for the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). IICA is based in San José, Costa Rica, and supports its 34 member countries in agricultural development and rural well-being. Canada is a member.
IICA and Lal have identified that soil health and productivity throughout the Americas, from Argentina and Chile to the U.S. and Canada, are under threat from erosion, desertification, depletion of soil organic matter, nutrient imbalance and salinization. Lal is driven by a personal belief that farmers, when given the tools to improve the soil, will evolve their practices. “We must make agriculture a solution to climate change because we cannot do without agriculture,” Lal says.
Lal was born on a small farm in west Punjab, now part of Pakistan. When he was a boy, his family moved to a small farm in India. The farm grew an acre of mustard each year, which they crushed themselves – using the oil for cooking and the meal for cattle feed. They also grew wheat, rice, sugar cane and cotton, and had a buffalo or a cow for milk. They processed what they needed for their own use and sold the rest.
Lal thinks often of his father and brother plowing in 40°C to 45°C heat. The memory reminds him of another expression common in the community: “Plowing in June will turn a respectable farmer into a fakir.” A fakir is a monk. When farmers make their jobs that hard (plowing with an ox in 45°C heat), they’d rather quit and become a monk. Today he wonders why his father and brother needed to plow at all? “If the research cannot alleviate this drudgery, then the research is not done,” Lal says.
“Organic matter is the heart of soil health, and organic matter depends on how much biomass is returned to the soil.”
Rattan Lal provides an international perspective on the global need to improve soil health. Lal is a distinguished professor of soil science at Ohio State University and director for the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration (C-MASC). He is also a goodwill ambassador for sustainable development for the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
Soil Health Practices
Lal says maintaining soil health is an issue for farmers all over the world. Many poor farmers use the whole crop for food, animal feed and cooking fuel. Even manure is used for fuel. The result is a steady decline in soil organic matter and the soil becomes exhausted.
“Organic matter is the heart of soil health, and organic matter depends on how much biomass is returned to the soil,” Lal says. “If residue is not returned to the land, the land will rebel and there will be more misery for people who live on it. People are the mirror image of the land they live on.”
Lal describes five steps to regenerate soil:
- No Plowing
- Leave crop residue and maintain ground cover at all times
- Use complex crop rotations
- Follow integrated soil fertility management, which includes nitrogen-fixing crops and green manure, not just chemical fertilizer
- Integrate crops with trees and livestock
To make this work, Lal says research must develop plants with larger and better root systems, identify the best ways to integrate crops with trees and livestock, and show how soil biodiversity can suppress plant diseases, to give just a few examples.
Lal sees a role for universities, government and private companies. He works with PepsiCo, Syngenta and Microsoft on soil health initiatives. “These companies could be game-changing organizations,” he says, particularly for sharing agronomy practices with farmers around the world. “In the process of helping farmers, these companies also help themselves to protect their supply chains. Governments do not have the capacity to do this,” he says.
This past fall, PepsiCo joined Living Soils of the Americas, a program IICA and C-MASC designed to “improve rural well-being, productivity and food security while respecting environmental limits and making rational use of natural resources”. A major tactic is to teach leaders, including leading farmers, who will be a model to others. PepsiCo will provide technical and financial support.
Lal encourages voluntary programs that help farmers improve efficiency, improve the health of the soil and preserve nature. He also says society should salute farmers who are the greatest stewards of the land. For farmers who don’t have the economic capacity to increase soil organic matter, Lal thinks companies could pay farmers for this ecosystem service.
While most of these programs are directed at small landowners throughout the Americas, Lal says farmers in Canada and the U.S. also have reasons to improve soil health and take part in other sustainability initiatives.
When asked, “If you could inspire crop farmers of Canada and the United States to change even one thing, what would that be?,” Lal goes back to the saying he learned that day under the tree in primary school: Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, the world is one family.
“One member of the family cannot say ‘I don’t care’. We should all care. We don’t live in isolation. We are all responsible,” he says. “If each person does small things each year to help the planet, you multiply that by eight billion and it becomes a big thing.”
“One member of the family cannot say ‘I don’t care’. We should all care. We don’t live in isolation. We are all responsible. If each person does small things each year to help the planet, you multiply that by eight billion and it becomes a big thing.”
–Rattan Lal