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Yogi lends support to ‘journey to save soil’
Till 2017, 38 districts in Uttar Pradesh were prone to floods, but now only four districts are flood prone due to relentless efforts, says chief minister
LUCKNOW Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said that there is a need to improve soil health in Uttar Pradesh.
“UP has rejuvenated 60 rivers over the past five years since Sadhguru last visited Lucknow in 2017 with his ‘Rally to River Project’. Now, he has come with ‘A journey to save soil’ and we will do it again,” said chief minister Yogi Adityanath while addressing a gathering at ‘A journey to Save Soil’ programme at CMS auditorium.
He said, “The Prime Minister has already introduced soil health cards for farmers in 2014. Now, when a person like Sadhguru is associated with the programme, the speed of soil improvement will pick up.”
“Like everyone gets a health check-up every year, we should also get a report card of soil health,” said the CM.
Adityanath welcomed Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, who is on a 100-day motorcycle journey passing through 27 countries as part of his ‘Save Soil’ campaign. .Sadhguru launched the Save Soil Movement in March this year to prevent a phenomenon that UN agencies are referring to as ‘soil extinction’ – the death of fertile soil worldwide posing an existential threat to the human race.
Stating that UP has improved the health of river Ganga too, Adityanath said: “When the PM came to Kanpur to review the Namami Gange project in 2020, he advised us to organize Ganga Yatra to see what it requires. At that time, 14 crore litre sewage used to fall directly into the Ganga at Sisamau, but today it has turned out to be a selfie point. Similarly in Jajmau, you can watch aquatic life in Ganga where sewage used to fall directly earlier. Due to brilliant work in Namami Gange project, we were able to organize the Kumbh successfully. Today, Ganga is clean in Prayagraj and Varanasi.”
“Till 2017, 38 districts were prone to floods, but now only four districts are flood prone due to relentless efforts. In the days to come, we will overcome problems of floods there too. In the last five years, over 100 crore trees were planted and now the target is to plant 35 crore trees in the state this year,” added Adityanath.
The Save Soil movement attaches people to the soil, advocates natural farming reducing their dependence on fertilizers and chemicals. “Ganga banks would be attached with natural farming and the programme has started at commissioner level. The products produced here would be certified by testing labs which have been set up there,” he said.
Earlier while welcoming the chief minister, Sadhguru said that UP must take a lead in implementing the save soil programme.
