SOIL IS THE REAL WEALTH OF THE NATION

RANKED AMONGST THE FIFTY MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN INDIA, SADHGURU IS A YOGI, MYSTIC, VISIONARY AND A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR SADHGURU HAS BEEN CONFERRED THE PADMA VIBHUSHAN BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IN 2017, THE HIGHEST ANNUAL CIVILIAN AWARD, ACCORDED FOR EXCEPTIONAL AND DISTINGUISHED SERVICE.

Sadhguru: India has about 160 million hectares of arable land. But nearly sixty percent of this soil is labeled as distressed soil. That means in another twenty-five to thirty years' time, we may not be able to grow the food that we need in this nation.

India has had many achievements: our space scientists are sending rockets to Mars and to the Moon; massive business developments and engineering feats have happened.

Among all these, the most incredible is that without any technology, just with traditional knowledge, our farmers have been feeding over one billion people. This is the greatest achievement in the country.

But unfortunately, we have pushed the farming community to the wall, where farmers do not want their children to go into farming. On one hand, we are losing the quality of the soil, and on another, farmers are not putting their next generation into farming.

This means in another twenty-five years, we are definitely headed for a major food crisis.

When there is no water and food, the level of civil crisis that will happen will demolish the nation in many different ways. People from those rural areas where water completely runs out are going to migrate in large numbers into urban centers. This is not far away. With no infrastructure, they will sit on the streets. But for how long? When there is no food and water, they will break into homes. I am not some kind of a doomsayer, but in the next eight to ten years, you will see these situations unless we do something drastic right now.

Rich Soil The Most Precious Gift