Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/mzvkptlel9
Effects of soil in the eco system – threads in the colourful fabric of Slavonia, Baranja and Syrmia
Ferdo Bašić
; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Razred za prirodne znanosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
This research is a contribution to the International Decade of Soils proclaimed by the International Union of Soil Sciences in which Croatian scientists have left a significant mark with their work. One of the founders is D. Gorjanović-Kramberger (1909) and one of the first textbooks on soil science was written in Croatian - Zemljoznanstvo (‘Earth-knowledge’) by M. Kišpatić (1877) belonging to the rich library of the Royal Economy and Forestry School in Križevci. Then there is M. Gračanin, who was the president of the Yugoslav section of the Union from 1931 to 1940, and V. Mihalić who was one of the founders of the International Soil Tillage Research Organization – ISTRO. The city of Osijek hosted (V. Mihalić, I. Mušac, I. Jurić, I,. Žugec) the 10th Conference of this organization; A. Butorac was a member of the Administrative board of ISTRO and also the editor of the magazine Soil and Tilllage research. D. Jug is the founder and the first president of CROSTRO in Croatia, F. Bašić was a member of European Soil Bureau Network (ESBN), which is an advisory body of the European Commision for soil strategy, from 1998 until his retirement in 2010 and worked to promote the idea of soil anagement and protection in the European Union. His work was continued by S. Husnjak, then A. Vranković, J. Martinović and B. Mayer, whereas N. Pernar is active in the field of soil science in forestry. Promoting the International Decade of Soils, the International Union of Soil Sciences issued a publication: Soil matters - Solutions under foot, in which Winiwalter (2015) states that plough is the symbol of culture. Namely, the Latin word culter denotes the part of the plough penetrating the soil at the beginning of ploughing, and when the seed in the soil starts a new life cycle, then chlorophyll sends signals to the Sun to start a production process in a unique (bio)chemical factory, a plant, that consumes CO2, as one of the raw materials and produces not only food for all heterotrophs, but also oxygen, returning it to the atmosphere and sustaining aerobiosis on Earth. This ‘factory’ is the key to sustainable survival of Homo sapiens (plant-reliant sustainable survival of Homo sapiens) on the blue green planet - Gea (Bašić, 2022). Starting with the moment around the mid 19th century, when the founder of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, a spiritual leader and prominent politician of that time who was also the bishop of Đakovo and Syrmia, J. J. Strossmayer first used the syntagm ‘Croatian Tuscany’ until this day, we are witnesses, in every historical period, of taking a decisive step backwards regarding agriculture, destroying advanced and, as a rule, large estates owned by high-ranking military officers, feudal lords, family-run farms, losers in the First and then the Second World War and in the post-war period, the economic giant of its era ‘Agrokombinat’30. This long list of destroyed agricultural companies includes PIK Belje, that flourished for three centuries, followed by: VUPIK, IPK Osijek, Đakovo, Vinkovci..., ‘forcefully and with little (if any) reason’. Being well acquainted with the topic of soil management and belonging to the 275th generation dissappearing like sand through our fingers with ‘thunderous silece’of those responsible and coalition and media limpets, I consider it important to sensitise both the general public and experts and to warn those who are responsible, and I am certain that, in his time, B. Štancl would definitely do the same: The soil under your feet is a gift from Nature/the creator, that we inherited from 274 generations of sedentary life and it holds the roots of Croatians in their historical space. It is our transtemporal obligation before these generations and before the Donor to keep it safe and resist the ‘winds of history’. In accordance, all the important decisions regarding this national treasure must be reached only by people’s votes at a referendum.
Keywords
plant-reliant sustainable survival; destruction of Croatian agriculture in the process of privatisation; effects of soil in the ecosystem.
Hrčak ID:
306246
URI
Publication date:
18.7.2023.
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