Farmers Of Goa Apprised Of Soil Desertification Through #Ride4Soil Campaign

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Sanquelim: Thousands of bikers around the country are presently riding in a 2 week long #Ride4Soil campaign to spread the message of the Save Soil movement. As a part of this, bike riders from Pune started visiting cities in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Goa, on Monday  reached Sanquelim. The bikers met chief Scientists of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra, North Goa, the President and members of JCI Sanquelim, addressed farmers and students from the nearby villages, and drove around in the city spreading the message of the movement.

Scientists from ICAR, which is the apex body for coordinating, guiding, and managing research and education in agriculture in the entire country under the aegis of DARE, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, spoke with the riders and affirmed the need of the campaign to educate the entire population of the country.

The riders held an event at the Surla Siddheshwar Temple and in a video message Sadhguru, founder Isha-Foundation, spoke about depleting soils around the world. Shri H.R. Chidananda Prabhu, Senior Scientist and a Subject Matter Expert at ICAR, welcomed the riders and addressed 50 farmers educating them of the need for putting organic content back into the soil. Shri Rahul Kulkarni. Assistant Chief Technical Officer (Agronomy) spoke on soil being an essential component for preserving life on the planet and how farmers are a key to make this into a reality.

Students of the Don Bosco College of Agriculture, Sulcorna, who as a part of their Rural Agriculture Work Experience Programme work with the farmers, also attended the event.

Chetan Salelkar, the President of JCI Sanquelim, invited the riders to plant saplings as part of the 5000 trees plantation drive in Sanquelim. The event was attended by Ms. Nikita Desai –  Secretary, Shri. Tejas Kini – Vice President, Programme and Shri. Sandeep Parsekar – Treasurer. The riders then drove around the city to continue spreading awareness.

Last month in a programme in North Goa, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had said, “Soil has lost its fertility due to constant use of fertilisers. Hence there is a need to save the soil along with water. Sadhguru toured many countries to spread awareness about saving soil. We need to protect soil, ‘catch the rain’ concept can do it.” The minister had praised the efforts of spiritual leader and founder of Isha Foundation Sadhguru for his global ‘Save Soil’ awareness campaign.

On 24th June, Sadhguru flagged off a group of bike riders in front of Adiyogi, the same place where he culminated his 100 days long journey for soil as a solo rider which began on 21st March in London. During his journey he has passed through 27 nations in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East and 10 states in India. These riders are travelling to various parts of the country to cover around 100 cities spreading the movement’s message.

The riders have so far covered places like Shirwal, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Nipani, and Belgaum. In Goa, the group will cover cities such as Sanquelim, Surla, Ponda, Margao, Verna, Vasco and Panjim and educate the general public through awareness drives and local events.

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