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About 29 per cent of Indian soil is already degraded, said the Forest Research Institute (FRI) director Ms.Savita. She was speaking at the inauguration of a training programme on advance techniques in soil, plant and water analysis for the research support staff of institutes under the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) at the FRI here. 

Inaugurating the programme on Monday, the FRI director addressed the participants regarding importance and present needs of training programme. She said that advance techniques in soil, plant and water analysis become all the more important for a challenging environment which is continuously degrading in many ways and should be addressed by people working on various research programme. 

She said, “About 33 per cent of our global soils and 29 per cent of Indian soils are already degraded. According to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) every minute 10 hectare land is lost to various degradation processes. Therefore, soil testing in particular is also important in monitoring the various types of land degradation and the choice of measures for land improvement and stopping the further land degradation.” 

She also spoke about the soil health card project prepared by the Forest Soil and Land Reclamation Division of FRI with the aim to collaborate and undertake a task to prepare Forest Soil Health Cards in the country. This will facilitate building up of the soil database of the country and monitor the changes occurring in the soil health status periodically for initiating suitable preventive measures. It will be a coordinated project and all of ICFRE institute will work on this project, said the FRI director. 

Earlier, the head of Forest Soil and Land Reclamation Division, VP Panwar addressed the gathering about the importance of the training for the ICFRE research support staff. The course coordinator of the training programme,  Parul Bhatt Kotiyal briefed the participants regarding training module for five days.

Various  topics which will be addressed in the training will include soil, plant and water relationship in forestry ecosystem, soil conservation and water management, soil survey and profile study, microbial analysis of soil, sustainable soil fertility management, rehabilitation of degraded areas and hands on training to determine parameters will also be given in laboratory followed  by field trip to observe reclamation of mined areas, types of soil erosion, forest types and vegetation after forest fires. Besides this various other topics on soil, plant and water analysis will be discussed with the participants, she added. 

Source: The Pioneer