The Perfect Pair
By Dan Jacobs, Senior Editor, CropLife and AgriBusiness Global
Soils around the globe are under unprecedented stress. According to the European Commission Joint Research Centre – European Soil Data Centre, several global assessments have been conducted by international bodies in recent years on the condition of soils around the world. And the assessments all agree that soils are increasingly degraded for large parts of the planet as a result of human pressures on land, especially on land being used for agriculture.
“This situation reflects the loss of natural ecosystems from urbanisation or infrastructure development and its conversion to more intensive use, as well as a reduction in soil functions due to erosion, pollution, poor nutrient management and a loss of organic matter,” the Commission says.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has posited that if these pressures are not adequately addressed, the world’s topsoil could be gone in 60 years. While the implications for such a scenario should send a shiver down the collective spine of the ag industry, technology and a six-decade head start should be enough time to mitigate and hopefully avoid such dire consequences.
“Soil health is diverse and complex around the world, influenced by variables such as intensive agricultural practices, urbanization, industrial activity, deforestation, and climate change,” says Joy Youwakim, Agronomy Scientist, Biome Makers. “These stressors, which include erosion, organic matter loss, nutrient imbalances, compaction, and reduced microbial diversity, all lead to soil degradation.”
Eurofins Agro Testing, a division of Eurofins Scientific, identifies a few additional reasons soils are in trouble.
“The reasons for a decline in soil health are diverse,” the Eurofins team explains. “In many countries/regions the input of organic material — manure/compost, etc. — is very limited and insufficient for the level of production, causing a decline in soil organic matter, and therefore soil health, over time. Additionally, climate change can cause higher mineralization in the soil because of higher temperatures. This has the effect of breaking down soil organic matter faster, making soils less resilient and fertile, e.g., more susceptible to drought, etc.”
While the assessment is alarming, the ag industry, regulatory agencies, non-governmental organizations, and growers are working together to address the causes. As with many of the challenges facing ag, concerned parties are embracing the promises of technology in search of solutions.
“There is widespread acknowledgment of the importance of soil health, and efforts are underway to address these concerns through sustainable land management, technical breakthroughs, and improved awareness,” says Meri Mullins, Technical Account Lead with Biome Makers.
Perhaps before exploring how technology can help improve soil health, it might be helpful to define “soil health.”
Carl Bruice, National Nutrition Technical Manager, Wilbur Ellis, defines it this way: “The capacity for soil to sustain a living vital ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and people.”
The more the agriculture industry learns about soil and the microbiome it supports, the more scientists realize how little they know.
While one of the most effective ways to maintain soil health — cover crops — is admittedly not very technologically advanced, understanding their value is definitely a scientific endeavor.
“We're not managing this like we’ve done in the past,” Bruice says.
There are four pillars of soil health, and cover crops account for the first three: keeping the soil covered with vegetation, plant biodiversity, and providing a living root system for as long as possible during the season. Those all speak to cover crops quite heavily, and the last pillar is to minimize soil disturbance, he says.
“In order to improve soil health at scale, technology should be employed to make soil data more accessible, understandable, and useful, so the appropriate actions can then be taken more readily,” the Eurofins team says.
Eurofins Agro Testing, for example, is “creating tools (also called analysis packages) that help farmers measure, manage, and improve soil health and fertility more easily.”
Crop input manufacturers can help, “by introducing to the market products and services that have a reduced environmental impact in their production and use,” Eurofins suggests. “Products should optimize food production, while also improving soil health by positively impacting physical, chemical, and biological aspects. These products should work with nature and help soil to become naturally regenerative and self-sustaining.”
Perhaps the most important factor in ensuring the long-term health of soil around the world is acknowledging the concern.
“The broad acknowledgement of this problem by the ‘mass market’ in agriculture has occurred fairly recently, gaining widespread adoption in only the past decade or so,” the Eurofins team says.
In addition to testing, crop input providers are developing solutions that are far friendlier to soils.
“The environment and climate change have become major issues, so a focus on the prudent use of water, minerals, and other resources is of major importance. Historically, many soils had excessive mineral applications, while others were insufficient. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have further increased awareness of these topics and increased the focus on soil health.”
“Biome Makers has made it our mission to meet this challenge, developing the technology to change how farmers interact with soil, processing massive data inputs, identifying and decoding patterns, and then interpolating this data into human action,” Mullins says. “BeCrop technology is a patented pipeline that digitizes the functions of the microbial community. Combining genomics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and ag data, it identifies microbial biomarkers to provide a meaningful explanation of soil function.”
Biome Makers provides a three-pronged tool set to help growers make soil-smart and financially advantageous decisions.
“Tools like BeCrop Test, BeCrop Trials, and BeCrop Rate offered by Biome Makers are specifically designed to address the challenges of soil health analysis and intervention,” Mullins explains. “BeCrop Test provides a comprehensive report on soil nutrient cycling, plant health, and biodiversity, empowering farmers to optimize soil health and plant performance. BeCrop Trials allow input manufacturers to validate hypotheses and demonstrate the biological mode of action of their products on crops over time, boosting consumer confidence and sales. BeCrop Rate offers a sustainability assessment of farmland, enabling food operators to verify the quality and sustainability of the products they distribute. These technological tools not only enhance decision-making processes but also support the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices and facilitate communication among stakeholders.”
The number of solutions companies continues to grow. Direct Enterprises, a Westfield, Indiana-based provider of seed treatments and equipment to the ag industry, recently launched Reclaim, a “bio-fertilizer/soil amendment designed to enhance soil health while breaking down stubborn crop residue in the field,” says Quinton Keeran, Director of Marketing. “The powerful microbial consortium in Reclaim makes valuable nutrition available to your next crop, while improving soil health and reducing reliance on tillage to break down residue. Adding a consortium of beneficial microbes to the soil achieves high levels of soil health, which can significantly increase yields.”
Technology can do a lot to mitigate or improve soil health, but one strategy is simply to let Mother Nature do her thing (with a little help).
While tillage might damage topsoil, it is unavoidable for some growers, but that doesn’t mean the impact can’t be limited.
“It's not like we're introducing these brand-new radical technologies,” Bruice says. “We're actually stepping back a little. In the past, we looked at soils from a chemistry perspective and a physical status perspective. The concept of soil health produces a vibrant living component of soil. The biological community, the earthworms, the arthropods, etc. What we're doing, with the concept of soil health is stepping back.”
“I've done quite a few trials utilizing cover crops and incorporating conservation tillage or thoughtful tillage,” explains Gina Colfer, PCA/CCA Sustainability Specialist, Wilbur-Ellis. “Intensive vegetable operations, they’ll go in and do 10 different tillage passes to incorporate the residue, be it a broccoli crop, a lettuce crop, or cover crop. But now, with diesel prices so expensive and labor so costly and restrictive, really that's kind of the low-hanging fruit. Where can we reduce our passes in the field, because right there you're going to be reducing your carbon footprint and also, playing into the soil health component by reducing tillage. Right? So, we've done cover crop trials where we've looked at conservation tillage, where you flail/chop the cover crop and then lightly incorporate it into the soil. And then we've been able to come in and plant directly into that residue.”
In one trial, that approach dropped the number of tillage passes from 10 or 12 to three, Colfer says. It also has the tangential benefit of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
“Following with the cover crop, growers will let it then sit fallow for a month to let that residue break down,” Colfer continues. “So, it's a mentality shift of looking at that residue and saying, ‘I can work with that residue,’ but knowing that that residue will also tie up nitrogen in the system. Applying the right inputs to stimulate breakdown and available nutrients like nitrogen is the key.
Bruice adds: “And so there's been a mindset change, instead of viewing the residue as a waste, it's an organic carbon input, and that stimulates the soil health aspect of diversity in microbial populations.”
“When I talk about soil health, I ask growers, ‘What's the most important asset on your ranch? No, it's not your new planter. It’s not your new shed. It's your soil.’ And we've lost megatons due to wind and water erosion. You’ve got to protect that asset,” Bruice says.
“Recognizing that the soil is a living ecosystem, we need to treat it as such,” Bruice says.
Even if they understand the concept, investing in a practice that might not provide a dividend is a difficult message. It can be a hard sell for growers whose profit margins are as thin as leaves on the crops he or she so tenderly cares for.
“That's how we evolved into this mindset of let’s nurture what's already there or think about it as introducing probiotics for the soil. Soil health is about coaching people — not just adding NPK — and don’t forget your carbon. It is an education process.”
The more that is learned throughout the value chain, the better chance the industry has of staving off or reversing soil loss around the world.
70,000 Different types of soil in the U.S.
1 Tablespoon of soil has more organisms in it than there are people on earth.
500 Minimum years it takes to form one inch of topsoil.
5,000 Different types of bacteria in one gram of soil.
.01 Percent of the earth's water is held in soil.
It takes an estimated 500 to 1,000 years to form one inch of topsoil. For this reason, soil is not considered a renewable resource. On a global basis, soil is being lost due to erosion, with estimates of 20 to 30 billion tons of soil lost per year due to water erosion and at least 2 billion tons of soil lost per year due to wind erosion. U.S. growers lose an estimated $100 million in farm income each year due to soil erosion.
Approximately 78% of the average per capita calorie consumption worldwide comes from crops grown directly in soil, and another nearly 20% comes from terrestrial food sources that rely indirectly on soil (Brevik 2013a)
Source: The Influence of Soils on Human Health, by Eric C. Brevik, Ph.D. (Department of Natural Sciences, Dickinson State University) & Lynn C. Burgess, Ph.D. (Department of Natural Sciences, Dickinson State University) © 2014 Nature Education
