Chronixx Joins Save Soil Movement To Address Global Soil Crisis

As concerns continue to mount about the implications of urban encroachment and mining onto farmlands on Jamaica’s food and nutrition security, Reggae/Dancehall star Chronixx has joined the Save Soil movement, a global initiative launched by Indian yoga guru and proponent of spirituality Sadhguru.

On Friday the Capture Land singer used his Instagram platform to pledge his support to Save Soil, which seeks to address the global soil crisis, where 52 percent of the world’s soil is said to be degraded, in what is a worsening phenomenon that has implications for famine.

In a lengthy post, which carried an accompanying video, Chroxixx, in batting for agriculture, pointed out that six Caribbean countries had joined the movement, and noted that while humans continue to channel their attention to promulgating the metaverse (immersive virtual worlds) as the new way of life, food remains the staff of life, and cannot be replaced by computers and artificial intelligence.

“Can’t grow food in the metaverse.  We can be happy on our screens up until we get hungry,” the Access Granted singer noted.

“As a child our mothers nurture us and give us earth’s substance. Naturally and instinctively.  In turn, as we increase in awareness and life, we have to nurture our mother, through the power of our own will, to secure a balance course of existence. It seems, from an evolutionary standpoint, we are at that turning point with out mother -the earth. This not a joke thing. More than 6 Caribbean nations are on board the mission to #sacesoil,” he added.

Leaders of six Caribbean nations- Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Guyana and Barbados have pledged support to the Save Soil initiative, but the Government of Jamaica, which has been facing mounting criticisms for some of its agricultural land policies, is yet to join.

The threats to global food security as a result of soil loss include the lack of organic content turning soil into sand, leading to food crisis and water scarcity.  On Friday Chronixx said that while other environmental issues can be addressed by legislation, the issue of soil degradation, is an issue that has far-reaching  implications, which the drafting and enacting of laws, cannot solve in the short run.

“I was blessed to hear @sadhguru reason about this in person and I experienced a proper resonance of truth. While our more civic issues like waste plastic and industrial pollution can be remedied by the stroke of a pen and a shift in civic and industrial legislations, this here will take us many decades and the highest levels of world leadership to fix if we ACT NOW. If we remain blind to the issue……a judgement,” the ST. Catherine High School old boy said.

“We can’t be electing governments who have no vision of how we are going to eat 30 years from now. If we raise the awareness of the peoples then the governments will be left with no option but to fall in line…,” Chronixx added.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcD_KtagtlJ/

As far back as 1994, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had prepared a document for the Government of Jamaica for the formulation of National Soils Policy for the island.

The FAO had noted that in the document titled A suggested National Soils Policy for Jamaica, that urban encroachment onto agricultural land was a massive problem on the island, as well as soil erosion in the hills, poor rehabilitation of mining land and soil salinization.

“Urban encroachment onto Jamaica’s limited resources of good agricultural soils could become very serious in the near future if steps are not taken to check it.   Present planning controls are inadequate, both legislatively and with respect to their application. Better control could be achieved by legislative improvements, to facilitate better enforcement. Control should be based on a system of land zoning based on land suitability criteria. This problem is one of urgency,” the UN specialized Agency had noted.

The Government at the time had declared a “commitment to support the implementation of this National Soils Policy” but none has not been crafted to date.

In July last year, Dr. Donavan Stanberry, a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, had warned the Andrew Holness administration about going ahead with plans for the removal of 2,370 acres of Jamaica’s most fertile soil in Bernard Lodge Estate in St. Catherine, from agricultural production into housing development.

Dr. Stanberry, who is now Registrar at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus, while speaking at a university seminar, titled COVID-19: New Imperatives for Food Security, in July last year, had proposed a food security action plan, which included immediately halting the Bernard Lodge development and preparing a master plan for the area based on soil capability.

The records show that there was a reduction of Jamaica’s agricultural land from 404,000 hectares in 1996 to 325,000 in 2007 and that in 2020, Jamaica spent almost US$1 billion on food imports.