A step for food security

The nutritional value of conventionally grown crops (like rice and wheat) has itself diminished over a period of time due to a decrease in mineral contents and unfavourable change in pH of soil which is largely due to widespread use of synthetic fertilisers and improper crop cycle. This has precarious consequences on the overall health condition. The human body essentially needs minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorous etc to name a few, in addition to vitamins and proteins. Lack of any of these nutrients may cause chronic ailments. Worryingly, now the soil has depleted and synthetic fertilisers can’t restore these minerals back into the soil. 

 

To address this issue, stress is being laid on organic farming. Although it's a positive step but mere organic farming is not the panacea for the ills that bedevil the current agricultural process. For instance, if the soil is devoid of magnesium, the organic fertiliser (like cow dung) would also be deficient of magnesium, ultimately resulting in a crop without magnesium content. To make organic farming work, at first the condition of the soil has to be corrected. Since the soil is depleted of essential mineral contents, a technique has to be implemented to correct it naturally. First of all, it is imperative to identify which mineral content is lacking, then the same can be added to the soil by way of adding naturally occurring rocks like bauxite (for iron and silicon), calcite (for calcium), dolomite and chromite etc, to name a few. 

 

Using organic micronutrients to build up the strength of the soil is of prime importance today. To counter the problem at hand, we need a new concept called nutritional farming to replace organic farming. Bio-tech procedure like water conditionally technology and soil desalination would help to a great extent to restore the nutritional elements in the soil. Agriculturally advanced countries like America, Russia, Korea and Israel have already diversified towards nutritional farming technology. Additionally, an agency to certify the nutritional value of food grains (similar to FDA in the US) must be set up and more resources should be provided in researches in this direction. After all, investing wisely in nutritional farming would save more costs associated in healthcare in the long run.