Soil Health in Peril: How Climate Change and Fertiliser Imbalance Are Emptying India’s Carbon Wells

Syllabus: GS-3 / Agriculture / Climate Change

Posted on 16th Nov, 2025

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🌀 Context

A recent ICAR study has raised a red alert:
India’s soils — the living foundation beneath 54% of the workforce — are steadily losing organic carbon, the most vital ingredient of soil fertility. The dual assault of climate change (rising temperatures, erratic rainfall) and unbalanced fertiliser use is causing widespread soil carbon degradation across major farming regions.

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🌍 Key Findings from the ICAR Study

1. Unbalanced Fertiliser Use Degrading Soil Carbon

• Excessive use of urea and phosphorus-based fertilisers has stripped soils of carbon.
• Haryana, Punjab, Western UP recorded the sharpest declines due to high-intensity, chemical-heavy cultivation.
• Bihar showed better resilience owing to more balanced fertiliser practices.

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2. Elevation Linked to Carbon Levels

• Hilly regions naturally retain higher soil carbon.
• Lowland agricultural belts show lower carbon due to intensive cropping and erosion.
• Low soil carbon = more heat reflection = increased greenhouse effect.

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3. Rising Temperatures Accelerate Carbon Loss

• Hot states like Rajasthan and Telangana show lower SOC due to faster decomposition of organic matter.
• Climate change is acting as a “carbon drain,” reducing soil resilience year after year.

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4. Role of Rainfall & Cropping Patterns

• Rice–pulse systems show higher carbon due to microbial activity in moist conditions.
• Wheat & coarse grains show lower SOC due to dry-soil cycles and less biomass return.

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🌾 Why Soil Health Matters

• Agriculture Backbone: Soil supports livelihoods of over 54% of Indians.
• Food Security: Soils rich in carbon boost productivity, nutrition, and resilience.
• Environmental Stability:
  – regulates water,
  – sequesters carbon,
  – supports biodiversity,
  – protects against droughts/floods.
• Economic Impact: Poor soil → high input costs → falling incomes → shrinking GDP contribution.

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🧪 Relevant Schemes & Initiatives

✔ Soil Health Card Scheme (2015)

• Gives farmers nutrient diagnosis + fertiliser advisory.
• Supported by mobile labs, digital soil tracking, school awareness programs.

✔ Soil Health Management (SHM) under NMSA

• Promotes organic farming and integrated nutrient management.

✔ RKVY (SHF Component)

• Brings SHC + SHM together for unified implementation.

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🌱 Needed Policy Shifts — ICAR Recommendations

1. Organic Carbon Sequestration Programs

Target soils with <0.25% SOC using carbon-rich cropping systems + irrigation support.

2. Carbon Credit Incentives

Financially reward farmers who trap carbon through sustainable practices.

3. Climate-Resilient Crop Models

Region-based soil-restoring crop plans, factoring in temperature rise & rainfall variability.

4. Vegetative Cover Expansion

Cover crops, agroforestry, and plantations to reduce erosion and carbon escape.

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🧭 Conclusion

The ICAR study is a wake-up call:
India’s soils are losing carbon faster than they can recover. Climate stress, unscientific fertiliser use, and flawed cropping patterns threaten not just farm incomes but the country’s food security and climate stability.

Unless India adopts balanced fertilisation, climate-aware cropping, and carbon-positive soil management, the ground beneath our feet will continue to weaken silently — turning fertile fields into exhausted earth.

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High Quality Mains Essay For Practice : Essay 1

Word Limit 1000-1200

Soil Health, Climate Change, and India’s Agricultural Future: Insights from the ICAR Study

Soil is more than the earth beneath our feet. It is a living system — a universe of microbes, minerals, organic matter, moisture, and memory. For a nation like India, where agriculture remains the backbone of livelihoods and food security, soil health is not merely an environmental concern; it is a national priority that shapes economic resilience, social stability, and long-term sustainability. The latest study by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) brings this urgency into sharp focus, documenting how climate change and unbalanced fertiliser use are accelerating the decline of soil organic carbon (SOC) across India’s farmlands.

India stands at a critical crossroads. Climate patterns are shifting rapidly — heatwaves are intensifying, rainfall is becoming erratic, and traditional cropping systems are under stress. At the same time, decades of excessive urea usage, phosphorus imbalance, and unsustainable agricultural intensification have stripped soils of their natural fertility. This twin challenge, biological and climatic, now threatens the productivity of millions of hectares of farmland. SOC — the heart of soil fertility — is declining at alarming rates in multiple regions. It is a silent crisis that carries major implications for food security, farmer incomes, and climate mitigation.

Unbalanced Fertiliser Use and the Carbon Crisis

The ICAR study highlights a long-standing concern: India’s dependence on nitrogen-heavy fertiliser use, particularly urea. Regions such as Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh, where intensive cultivation and over-fertilisation dominate, show the steepest declines in soil organic carbon. Continuous rice-wheat cycles, poor crop diversification, residue burning, and insufficient addition of organic matter have left the soil depleted. Excess urea increases soil alkalinity, reduces microbial activity, and speeds up the breakdown of organic carbon — effectively hollowing the soil from within.

In contrast, states like Bihar, where fertiliser application is relatively balanced, have maintained better carbon levels. The message is clear: soil health is not only ecological; it reflects policy choices, market incentives, and farmer awareness.

Climate Change and the Vulnerable Soil System

Soil responds sensitively to temperature. With rising heat levels across India, particularly in states like Rajasthan and Telangana, organic matter decomposes faster, causing carbon to escape into the atmosphere. This releases CO₂, contributing to climate change — creating a feedback loop where climate change worsens soil health, and poor soil health accelerates climate change.

Low-carbon soils reflect more solar radiation, increasing surface heat. High-carbon soils, in contrast, act as carbon sinks, improving moisture retention and stabilising local climates. The degradation of soil carbon is therefore not merely agricultural; it intersects with climate mitigation efforts at the national and global level.

Elevation, Rainfall and Cropping Patterns

The ICAR study provides valuable insights into geographical variations. Hilly regions show naturally higher SOC because cooler temperatures and dense vegetation slow decomposition. Lowland and intensively farmed plains, however, exhibit significant depletion.

Rainfall and cropping systems also shape soil carbon. Rice and pulse-based systems maintain higher microbial activity and carbon content due to moisture-rich cultivation. Wheat and coarse-grain systems, especially under dry-land farming, tend to have lower carbon storage. These variations underscore the need for region-specific soil management strategies rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.

Why Soil Health Matters for India

More than half of India’s workforce is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. Declining soil health impacts:

• Crop Yields: Carbon-rich soils retain moisture, support nutrient cycles and sustain beneficial microbes; without it, yields fall.
• Food Security: India’s food demand will rise sharply by 2050; degraded soils cannot meet future needs.
• Climate Resilience: Healthy soils buffer droughts, reduce flood impact, and enhance long-term sustainability.
• Economic Stability: Declining productivity increases fertiliser dependence and raises cultivation costs, hurting farmers’ incomes and national GDP.
• Environmental Balance: Soil carbon is a major carbon sink; its loss worsens greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity decline.

Government Initiatives in Soil Restoration

India has already taken major steps toward restoring soil health:

• Soil Health Card Scheme: By providing nutrient profiles and fertiliser recommendations, this initiative encourages scientific fertiliser use.
• Soil Testing Infrastructure: Mobile labs, digital databases, and school-based programs bring soil analysis closer to farmers.
• National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture: Promotes integrated nutrient management, organic farming, and climate-resilient techniques.
• RKVY Integration: Coordinated efforts under a single umbrella increase efficiency and impact.
• Precision Farming and Micro-Irrigation: Drip systems under PMKSY reduce fertiliser loss and improve nutrient delivery.

Yet these efforts must scale rapidly to counter the accelerating climate risks and degradation patterns identified in the ICAR study.

Policy Pathways for Soil Recovery

The study suggests strong policy interventions, which align with broader sustainability goals:

1. Organic Carbon Sequestration Programs
   Areas with less than 0.25% SOC need targeted incentives for carbon sequestration through compost, green manure, agroforestry, and better irrigation support.
2. Carbon Credit Incentives for Farmers
   Rewarding farmers who adopt carbon-sequestering farming practices can transform soil restoration into a viable economic opportunity.
3. Climate-Responsive Crop Planning
   Developing region-specific cropping strategies will help adapt to temperature variations and prevent carbon loss.
4. Vegetative Cover Expansion
   Plantation drives, cover crops, and natural vegetation shields soil from erosion and enhance organic matter.

Conclusion

The ICAR study is not merely a scientific alert; it is a national call to action. Soil health cannot be restored overnight — but it can be rapidly degraded if ignored. India must embrace balanced fertilisation, diversified cropping, organic carbon restoration, and climate-resilient agricultural planning. The future of Indian agriculture, food security, rural livelihoods, and climate mitigation depends on this fundamental resource beneath our feet: the soil that nourishes the nation.

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High Quality Mains Essay For Practice : Essay-2 Literary

Word Limit 1000-1200

When the Soil Forgets Its Story

(≈1000–1200 words, no headings, no bullets)

There are stories the earth carries without speaking. Stories older than kingdoms, older than scriptures, older than man’s ambition to shape rivers and split mountains. These stories live in the soil — in the hushed conversations of microbes, in the slow dance of carbon through roots and fallen leaves, in the quiet patience with which the land waits for the monsoon. When we walk on it, we do not hear them. When we plough it, we do not remember them. But the soil remembers everything.

For generations, Indian farmers worked in rhythm with these stories. They sowed, reaped, rested, and sowed again, guided not by chemical formulas but by seasons, clouds, winds, and the deep instinct that the land must be nourished before it nourishes them. But today, as ICAR’s study reveals, the soil is beginning to forget. Its memory is thinning like an old manuscript left in heat and dust. The organic carbon — that delicate ink holding the story together — is fading.

There is something profoundly tragic about a soil that loses its memory. Because when soil forgets, a civilisation forgets with it.

Across the plains of Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh, the land trembles under the weight of unbalanced fertiliser use. Urea falls upon it like a harsh command, not a gentle offering. Phosphorus gathers where it should not. Microbes retreat. The great orchestra of the underground — fungi, bacteria, worms, roots — loses harmony. You can almost imagine the soil flinching, whispering, “Enough.” But the fields demand more yield, and more yield demands more input, and more input demands… more forgetting.

And then the climate enters the story, not as a warm neighbour but as a restless visitor. A summer hotter than the last one. Nights that no longer cool the ground. A breeze that dries too fast. In Rajasthan and Telangana, rising temperatures pull carbon upward like a thief stealing from the village chest. Organic matter, which once stayed nestled in coolness, now burns away silently. With each degree of heat, a little more of the soil’s story is erased.

Meanwhile, in the hills, the soil clings fiercely to memory. Cooler air protects its carbon. Forest shadows guard its secrets. But even there, the future presses its thumb upon the horizon. Rainfall patterns shift. Crops migrate. Forests thin. The soil wonders if its quiet comfort is temporary.

In the rice fields of the east, microbial life continues its dance, fuelled by moisture and the pulse of water. Carbon here survives because rice understands the language of wetness. Pulses, too, enrich the soil with their nitrogen-fixing grace. But wheat fields, coarse-grain belts, and dryland farms struggle to keep the same cycle alive. In these regions, every harvest takes more than the earth can replenish.

The ICAR study does not shout; it warns with the calm voice of a teacher who has watched a student drift too far from discipline. Soil health, it says, is not merely an agricultural problem — it is the quiet foundation of India’s food security, economic stability, and ecological balance. It is the invisible pillar holding up the nation’s future.

To lose organic carbon is to lose resilience. A carbon-rich soil is like a wise elder — holding memories, preserving moisture, guiding crops through uncertain seasons. A carbon-poor soil is like a tired child — unable to hold water, unable to protect crops, unable to support the generations leaning on it. When farmers pour more fertiliser into such soil, it is like trying to heal a wound with noise instead of medicine.

There is a deeper spiritual question hidden inside all of this:
What does it mean if the land that sustains us begins to fade under our own hands?

In countless villages, the soil is not just a physical medium; it is identity. It is property, ancestry, inheritance. So when that soil weakens, something within rural India weakens too. The farmer knows this instinctively. They feel it when the land cracks differently under their feet, when the colour of the tilled earth turns from rich to pale, when the crop stands weaker despite more effort.

It is not the soil alone that is losing carbon. Something inside the farmer is losing faith.

And yet, hope is not lost. Because soil, like memory, can be restored. The same ICAR study that warns of decline also points to recovery. Balanced fertiliser use can bring back microbial harmony. Crop diversification can reintroduce forgotten rhythms. Cover crops, agroforestry, and organic amendments can refill the soil’s inkpot of carbon. Carbon credit incentives can transform stewardship into livelihood. Precision agriculture can replace guesswork with wisdom.

Most importantly, India’s farmers — who have survived droughts, floods, and centuries of change — can learn again to farm with the soil, not against it. They have always been the custodians of the land’s memory. Now, they must become its restorers.

There is something poetic in imagining a future where soil carbon rises again. Where fields in Punjab recover their humus-rich depth. Where Rajasthan’s cracked ground holds moisture like an old friend. Where Telangana’s parched soils breathe more gently. Where Bihar’s balanced practices become a national example. Where every handful of earth once again carries the fragrance of life, not the fatigue of extraction.

Soil does not ask for much. A little organic matter. A little rest. A little respect. But it gives endlessly — crops, climate balance, groundwater recharge, biodiversity, and the quiet dignity of a landscape at peace.

Perhaps the most profound truth is this:
A nation’s strength is not built on its tallest structures but on the unseen health of the soil beneath its smallest seeds.

If we listen carefully, the soil is not silent. It is speaking urgently today. It is asking us to choose memory over forgetting, balance over excess, patience over haste. It is reminding us that all revolutions begin beneath the surface — in darkness, in silence, in slow and steady renewal.

Because when the soil remembers, a civilisation endures.
And when the soil forgets, a civilisation begins to fade.

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