Caring for the Lankan soil equals caring for the nation

Many may not know that Sri Lankan soil is home to dozens of traditional varieties of tuberous roots and that these hold high medicinal qualities capable of preventing many diseases – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara 

The soil into which one is born is considered sacred. The particular patch of soil upon which we were born and nurtured in the vast bosom of Mother Earth is termed as our nation or country. Each country along with its people are unique; each with its own range of plant species, ancient knowledge and traditions that evolve through time and influenced by many factors. Naturally, we learn to love our countries and appreciate their speciality, often stemming from geographical uniqueness.

It is known that some people, mainly of the older generations do not consume imported root vegetables or those which are of foreign origin, as it is not borne of one’s own soil. In fact, eating imported food is alien to many older persons, such as our grandparents. Most of them ask the rational question; why should we import produce such as potato and onion and not work towards policies that foster the growth of these within the country?

This should be asked by each of us too. Many may not know that Sri Lankan soil is home to dozens of traditional varieties of tuberous roots and that these hold high medicinal qualities capable of preventing many diseases. 

Some would say importing stuff we do not need, for whatever intriguing reason, is the standard policy of the day. It is best that we remember that policies are made on behalf of citizens by a set of people who are temporary guardians of the nation, elected by the power of the people. A mass of people who know the value of their heritage can influence and correctly guide policy makers. 

In the post-colonial, neo liberalised, globalised reality we are in, the fact remains that from policy maker to general citizen we have forgotten that we had hundreds of varieties of endemic plants before the chemical fertiliser and hybrid plant mania overtook much of the world.

As Lankan Chef and food researcher, Publis Silva points out, indigenous tubers and yams of Sri Lanka are a powerhouse of nutrients unlike the high chemical infused ‘globalised’ potatoes found rampantly in the market. 

In his research Publis Silva has found so far at least 56 native potato varieties (the total number is supposed to be higher). Some of these varieties include Hathawariya ala (Asparagus racemosus), Manel ala, Olu Ala, Seeni Kodol, Kiri ala, Dehi Ala (Colocasia Sp. Green), Rajala (Dioscorea alata var), Innala (Solenostemon rotundifolius, Dambala Ala (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus), Katu Ala (Dioscorea Pentaphylla) and Angili Ala.

The above mention of native yams and tubers were just to cite an example of the food that are natural to our soil and which do not need synthetic coaxing. 

We today have lost hundreds of varieties of indigenous yams, vegetables such as beans, tomatoes and other plant and herb species due to our poisoning of the earth through chemical agriculture. The indigenous varieties of plant life are very sensitive to artificial changes within the soil and react swiftly and thereby are today virtually extinct. It is said that agriculture officials (and many ordinary villagers) today do not even recognise indigenous grain/rice varieties such as those known to be highly resilient even to salty terrain and are hell bent on labelling them as wild weeds and destroying them. 

Therefore, we have in Sri Lanka today the cultivation of imported rice varieties solely reliant on non-organic means. To reverse this general calamity and for us to truly connect with our soil, we will need national commitment that goes well beyond politicians and their limited knowledge. 

We as Sri Lankans are ignorant of our own wealth. Or possibly at different levels of decision making there are other motivating factors not aligned with the best interests of the nation which leads us to have such an import addicted servility.

Whether we choose to remain ignorant at this time of pandemics, when our health also means the health of our economy, is up to us. We are currently choosing to be ignorant of a key factor; the unique indigenous Lankan immunity-boosting medical/food heritage which unlike Western allopathy is interlinked and inseparable. It will be impossible to separate our traditional (non-chemicalised/non-poisonous) food from our medicine. 

Miraculous immunity-boosting quality of our food/herbs

Yet here again our import servility dominates alongside us being clueless and willing to remain clueless about the miraculous immunity-boosting quality of our food/our herbs. Therefore, instead of fear psychosis, what we should nourish in these times of pandemics is our native soil. We should stop to learn how our ancestors nurtured the soil and the utmost respect and gratitude they had for the womb that provided the food and medicines we needed. 

This has to be an exercise that begins at schools, at primary and secondary level of education so that we do not have another mass of people unable to face the present and the future because they are totally cut off from their past. Our challenge in Sri Lanka towards this goal is that we have very few people with genuine love, respect and authentic knowledge of indigenous practices related to agriculture, soil protection and indigenous medical heritage. It is this we must rectify as a priority and learn from the few such experts still living. It is this which will save our nation. 

It is only if we had this confidence of our intangible cultural heritage relating to food and medicine that we could have totally created for ourselves an absolutely different scenario than we are seeing now in these times of pandemics where we are losing billions of rupees for an imported mechanism to boost immunity and tell ourselves that it is the one and only solution. 

The lifeline of our immunity

Our native food, throughout the ages, has been the lifeline of our immunity and our ancient Ola leaf based medical manuscripts had diverse curative alternatives for many prototypes of illnesses that evolve through time. These ancient manuscripts (which Sri Lanka is not bothered to examine by incorporating into a national policy to look into current needs) also has many ways in which our ancients nurtured and cared for our soil. Before we infused poison to the earth, the soil of this land healed us without putting us into brick made prison like structures dependent on the monopoly of one science. From the verdant south to the arid north, we cultivated our food and a plethora of herbs that were the envy of 19th century medical researchers. 

This was a time when we did not resort to scientifically murdering the earth and unleashing sickness, euphemistically called ‘lifestyle diseases.’ Incidentally it is these lifestyle diseases that complicate the immunity of persons in this COVID-19 pandemic and the Western medical science that can neither cure dengue or cancer or diabetes cannot offer a non-synthetic (natural) solution except vaccines. 

Thus, in the current national level discourse as to whether we will all starve without chemical fertiliser what we must realise is that we have not just been slaves of imports of chemical agrarian and food/medicinal inputs but also first and foremost been victims of artificial, synthetic and imported fear.

Inherent heritage knowledge

A country which is confident of its inherent heritage knowledge whether it is about agrarian related knowledge, medicinal or soil preservation (all of which are interlinked), alongside other components of traditional expertise, need not fear lack of self-sufficiency. Such a country need not fear disease. 

It must be recalled here that China (although it did not publicise this factor too much) became the only country to control COVID-19 by the simple use of traditions inherent to that nation (as it is to ours) such as vapour inhalation and their own range of immunity boosting food/herbs. Vapour inhalation and dietary requirements were emphasised in a systematic manner. 

A country can use both its Western science and traditional knowledge base in whatever sphere internationally for its economic upliftment. Such a country is a leader and not a follower. Hence this type of country need not drown itself in debt getting what it needs to secure the wellbeing of its citizens from other nations whether connected to health or food or food production. The primary quality of such a country is confidence and a non-slavish mentality.

If Sri Lanka had this quality, we could have stormed the world creating a staunch local and international base for our agro-medicinal products and our unique Sri Lankan Ayurveda (Deshiya Chikitsa/Sinhala wedakama). We could have realised that our Sinhala Wedakama had many ways of treating the soil and Indian Ayurveda a specific branch of studies called ‘Wruksha Ayurveda’ for the health of plants and the soil. We could have been the nation exporting organic solutions to the world. 

A country that thinks for itself, that is bold in confidence and knowledge of what is inherently its own, and which uses Western science, if the need be, judiciously alongside its own traditional sciences need not become pawns of any mafia. 

We see today much debate on whether we need to import organic fertiliser or not. Organic fertiliser is borne out of the general make up of a nation’s nature-based environs. The creatures nurtured within the soil which is vital for its nutrients and the organisms that serve as food for the soil is nothing but the outcome decreed by particular environs. This is unique to a particular patch of land of this vast mother, the earth with each patch of land identified as separate countries. 

It is a matter of pride for a country to be able to protect its soil and provide it the nutrition it needs, especially for ancient civilisations such as Sri Lanka. Historically each and every leaf and twig that fell to the earth returned to its final resting place; the soil. We then did not have the craze of sweeping away fallen leaves to create bonfires out of it each day just so we have nice clean barren lawns. Clearing up garden space of leaves do not make it nutritious for the soil. A nutritious patch of soil is when it has all or much of nature returning to it. This is how the cycle of life was meant to be. Modern man lost his way when we tried to change this cycle of life and injected a scientific alternative to nature.

We are still confused

We are still confused from our total addiction to the green revolution of the 1960s when we allowed all our traditional methods of caring for the soil to be forgotten and replaced it with the artificial. 

Today as Sri Lanka is attempting to get out of that mindset, we cannot grasp that it is possible. The same fear which was sold to us; that we will starve if not for this artificial fertiliser and pesticide and weedicide is now echoing around us. A possible wise answer could be that we will starve only if have totally lost ourselves as a nation to the knowledge we had. If we have totally lost our sense of connection with how ancestors treated the soil, nurtured it, fostered its wellbeing by encouraging the protection of trees such as the mee, kumbuk, nuga and neem to be grown (just to mention a few of the trees that powerfully protect the eco system).

There were ideal locations for such trees; for example, the kumbuk tree which is known to cleanse as well as foster the water resources within the earth were grown near water zones although growing it in areas where water was not much present was also known to create water bases. All of these mechanisms fertilise the soil of the earth. Small water tanks as dug by our ancestors within villages foster water and safeguard the soil from aridity. 

Why cannot we create each school to start such an initiative and make learning to nutritionalise the soil mandatory? Why cannot we encourage the foresting method for agriculture as was found in the ancient model known as Sobhadaham Govithena (nature farming as promoted today by Thilak Kandegama) where human interference in the cultivation process is at a minimum and the cultivating atmosphere is forest-like, thus ensuring maximum nutrition for the soil. 

Here again we have to mention what our slavish mentality did to our soil; when we in the 1970s took the advice of foreign experts (and ignored our own ecologist Ranil Senanayake of Analog foresting fame) and cultivated pine trees as a means of ‘reforestation,’ thus leading to the total destruction of the soil in those areas. Today one can find only blankets of pine needles in those ‘forests’ and no other plant species exist, thus eradicating soil enrichment.

Each part of the vast great mother that is the earth has many miraculous plants and trees and shrubs; they are meant to be where they are. All of that is unique to its own territory is decreed by Mother Earth in innate wisdom beyond man.

Today in this day and age of importing anything and everything we bypass nature. 

We are now attempting the same route for keeping healthy our soil. This may have been ridiculed as preposterous by our forefathers. As long as we have the trees and plants and shrubs and grass upon this soil there can never be such a ‘scarcity’ of soil nutrients. 

The solution is clear. The solution is to usher in a national policy that involves every family, school, temple, church, kovil, mosque, university government office and business institution to motivate citizens to learn how to love and care for soil the way our ancestors did. Our population, especially our intellectuals, media and policy makers are mentally and emotionally disconnected with the holistic way upon which our great agrarian and medicinal heritage was founded. 

This may be our last chance to change it and realise that education does not mean teaching a host of theoretical stuff to a nation and then distancing them from the very basic understanding; that our lives depend on how we treat our soil. 

(SV)