Soil Regeneration
Vinagra Village started a journey to restore soil, to be the local voice for soil with actions to increase the organic content, because depleted soils cannot absorb and regulate water flows. So we started working on water retention, helping at the same time mitigating floods, droughts and increase biodiversity in drought-prone Alentejo, because loss of biodiversity further disrupts the soil regeneration.
Organic matter can hold up to 90% of its weight in water, which gets slowly released over time. The goal is to bring at least 3-6% of organic content back into the soil of Vinagra Village.
Regeneration of the soil is a priority
The United Nations estimates that we only have 60 years of soil left. Sadhguru, the Indian mystic, launched Save Soil the global program event to address the impending soil degradation crisis.
Vinagra Village is joining the Save Soil Campaign to bring awareness on the problem of soil extinction.
At Vinagra Village, like most places across the globe, soil degradation is approaching unprecedented levels that threaten food production, climate stability and our very lives on this planet.
Healthy soil is the basis of our lives. Good soil is able to sustain life, store water and carbon. Up until now though, almost all agricultural regulations promote the use of poisons (such as pesticides), which is impacting/ threatening our biodiversity. Birds and insects for example are beginning to disappear, causing our climate to change. With extreme weather conditions washing away good soil and turning it into a desert, it’ll become increasingly more difficult to grow healthier crops. We need to act fast and that is what Vinagra Village has started doing, making soil healthy, shaded by plant cover and nourished by organic content from plant and animal waste. We have planted 50 cork trees and 20 Pawlonias in the last 30 days, we expect to plant thousands more trees in the next few months.
Soil is the only achievable solution to climate change.