On-farm soil quality estimations

The study aims to develop a battery of on-farm soil quality tests for use in both organic and conventional farming. The work is largely based on available on-farm test systems

Soil Quality Management - Concepts and Terms

The industrialization of agriculture and the concurrent increase in societal concerns on environmental protection and food quality have put focus on agricultural management and its impact on soil quality. Soil quality involves the ability of the soil to maintain an appropriate productivity, while simultaneously reducing the effect on the environment and contributing to human health. This development has changed society’s expectations to science and there is an urgent need to improve the communication among researchers from different scientific disciplines. The interaction of scientists with decision-makers is a topic of utmost relevance for future developments in agriculture. Reflexive objectivity denotes the exercise of raising one’s consciousness of the cognitive context, i.e. societal priorities and the values and goals of the researcher. The term sustainability comprehends the priorities in the cognitive context and thus constitutes a valuable tool for expressing the basis of scientific work. Soil quality evaluations should include awareness of the stability of any given quality attribute to disturbance and stress. This implies addressing resistance and resilience of the soil functions and/or the physical form in question. Most existing literature on soil quality focuses on assessment of soil quality rather than the management tools available to influence soil quality. Identification of management thresholds rather than soil quality indicator thresholds is suggested as an important means of implementing the soil quality concept. The major challenges facing modern agriculture include proper nutrient cycling, maintained functions and diversity of soil, protection of an appropriate physical form, and avoidance of chemical contamination. It is suggested that these challenges and problems as related to the soil quality concept are discussed in the framework expounded above

Managing Soil Quality: Challenges in Modern Agriculture

Soil quality is a concept that allows soil functions to be related to specific purposes. Previous books on soil quality have emphasized descriptive aspects, by focusing on e.g. soil quality indicators, indexing, and minimum data sets. This book takes a management oriented approach by identifying key issues in soil quality and management options to enhance the sustainability of modern agriculture. Topics covered include major plant nutrients (N, P, K), soil acidity, soil organic matter, soil biodiversity, soil compaction, erosion, pesticides and urban waste. Also included are in-depth treatments of the soil quality concept, its history, and its applicability in research and in developed and developing societies. The book will be of significant interest to post-graduate students and researchers in agronomy and in soil, crop and environmental sciences, and to stakeholders involved in issues related to land use and agricultural development

The soil quality concept and its importance in the study of Finnish arable soils

Arable soil is a functional unit whose condition is vital to crop production, but also to ecosystems at large owing to the significant role of soil in global nutrient cycles and balances. The soil quality concept recognises the concern for the sustainability of current arable land use practices. It integrates soil chemical, physical and biological properties, and takes account of the interaction of soil with water and air. This paper reviews the soil quality concept and its applications and discusses the importance of the concept for the assessment of Finnish arable soils. Many aspects of the chemical quality of arable soil are already well known in Finland. In contrast, follow-up of the physical and biological soil components, which are increasingly seen as important features of soil quality, is rudimentary. For monitoring of the soil quality at different scales – field, regional, national and global – a suitable set of indicators needs to be identified. In this paper particular attention is paid to the potential importance and usefulness of selected biological indicators. It is clear that more basic research is needed to provide scientists and advisors with a solid basis for transmitting reliable information on soil quality. While the soil quality concept has been justifiably criticised, it has clear merits in the integrated handling of the soil entity and in highlighting the environmental aspects of arable soil quality

Importance of Soil Quality in Environment Protection

Soil quality can be characterised by the harmony between it’s physical and biological state and the fertility. From the practical crop production viewpoint, some important contrasting factors of soil quality are: (1) soil looseness – compaction; (2) aggregation – clod and dust formation; friable structure – smeared or cracked structure; (3) organic material: conservation – decrease; (4) soil moisture: conservation – loss; water transmission – water-logging; (5) at least soil condition as a result of the long term ef ect of land use moderates or strengthens climatic harm. In our long-term research project practical soil quality factors were examined in arable i eld and experimental conditions. We state that prevention of the soil quality deterioration can be done by the developing and maintaining harmony between land use and environment. Elements of the soil quality conditions such as looseness, aggregation, workability, organic matter, water transport are examined and the improving methods are suggested. Tillage and production factors which can be adopted to alleviate the harmful climatic impacts are also summarised

Analysis of Soil Quality for Hydrological Disaster Mitigation in Sub-Watershed of Krueng Jreue, Aceh Besar Regency-Indonesia

Land conversion of forest to non-forest has led to a reduction in soil fertility, exhibited by a lower soil quality index value (SQI) in the Sub-Watershed of Krueng Jreue. This study aimed to determine soil quality associated with various land uses using the SQI value approach. SQI is calculated based on the criteria proposed by Mausbach & Seybold (1998), which is suitable for field conditions using analysis of Minimum Data Set (MDS). The parameters analyzed include rooting depth, soil texture, bulk density, total porosity, pH of the soil, C-organic, N-total, P-available, K-exchangeable and soil respiration. The result showed that the quality criteria of the soil in the study area consists of three classes, namely: low, medium and high, which have soil quality index values of 0.27, 0.52, and 0.64 respectively. Based on the study's soil quality criteria, the area of research was mapped accordingly by class: (1) high, covering an area of 14016.98 ha (60.38%); (2) medium, covering an area of 8542,90 ha (36.79%); and low, covering an area of 658,18 ha (2.83%). Types of land use categorized as having high quality, were primary forest, secondary forest and residential area with respective values of 0.66; 0.64, and 0.63. Open land, grassland, moor, rice field and shrubs were of medium quality, with respective values of 0.47; 0.48; 0.52; 0.51 and 0.55. The main and additional components affecting the hydrological disaster vulnerability on soil quality parameters are land use change, and soil properties. The findings of this research have implications structural efforts to mitigate hydrological disasters (dams, catchment wells, biopori, tillage conservation, terracing), and non-structural efforts (maps of soil quality, agroforestry, cover crops, materials of soil conditioner, organic matter). These efforts are necessary to improve and maintain soil quality longitudinally

Soil Quality Improvement Using Compost and Its Effects on Organic-Corn Production

Intensive agriculture has been well known to cause decline in soil organic matter and nutrient content of the soils. Therefore, efforts should be taken to avoid this from happening. Addition of organic fertilizers like compost has been increasingly become more important in Indonesian agriculture in the last couple of decades. The objectives of this study were to produce high quality compost using Indore method and to investigate its effects on organic-corn production. The study was conducted in the Integrated Agriculture Zone (IAZ), University of Bengkulu for two years (2012 and 2013). The study  consisted of three steps: (i) soil fertility identification, (ii) compost production, and (iii) organic-corn field production. Soil fertility identification involved physical, chemical, biological analysis of soil samples collected from less fertile and moderately fertile soils. A randomized completely block design was employed in the field study which involved five rates of compost and two levels of soil fertility with three replications.  In 2012, high quality compost was black, had pH 8, fine, odorless, and sufficiently high in NPK contents. Organic-corn yielded 2.94 and 5.69 Mg ha-1 of dried kernels on less fertile and moderately fertile soils, respectively at 20 Mg ha-1 compost. Similarly, in 2013 high quality compost was black, had pH 8, moderate, odorless, and high in NPK contents. The corn yields were 3.75 and 1.93 Mg ha-1 on less fertile and moderately fertile soils, respectively at 22.50 Mg ha-1 compost.  [How to Cite: Riwandi, M Handajaningsih, Hasanudin, and A Munawar. 2015. Soil Quality Improvement Using Compost and its Effects on Organic-Corn Production. J Trop Soils 19: 11-19. Doi: 10.5400/jts.2015.20.1.11][Permalink/DOI: www.dx.doi.org/10.5400/jts.2015.20.1.11

Changes to soil quality indicators following conversion to organic vegetable production (OF0401)

This is the final report of Defra project OF0401. The attached report document starts with an Executive Summary, from which this text is extracted. The aim of this 1 year study was to examine how key functional indicators of soil quality are affected by contrasting organic and conventional management regimes. In particular, the project investigated the impact of contrasting fertility building regimes on soil quality, focussing on the initial 5-year period following conversion from conventional to organic production. Five 0.8 ha areas at HRI-Wellesbourne were selected for study. These were: two organic vegetable rotations supporting contrasting fertility building regimes, an organic arable rotation, a grass-clover ley, and a conventionally managed cereal rotation. The organic areas had been converted from conventional cereal production 5 years prior to the start of the study. The conventional area was adjacent. A range of chemical, biological and physical attributes were determined. There were differences between the organic and conventional management regimes in most chemical, biological and physical soil quality parameters. Contrasting organic management regimes had different effects on soil quality. Relative to organic vegetable and conventional arable management, the organic arable management rotation enhanced amounts of light fraction organic matter and labile N, with beneficial implications for long term nutrient retention and soil organic matter development. There was little difference in chemical quality between the organic vegetable and the conventional arable areas. There was evidence that organic management promoted a microbial community that was distinct in composition and functional attributes to that in conventional soil. Relative to conventional management, areas under organic management had greatly increased inoculum of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, a larger proportion of 'active' relative to 'resting' biomass within the microbiota, increased metabolic diversity and a distinct microbial community metabolism. However, there was evidence that the productivity of newly converted organic systems could be limited by low inoculum and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inherited following conventional management. The clearest effect on soil structure was with regard to the detrimental effects of vegetable production rather than to any benefit associated with organic management. Wheeling lines caused compaction that resulted in poor growth of subsequent cereal crops. However, it is likely that increased levels of organic matter may result in a soil better able to cope with damaging operations. There were differences in the susceptibility of the chemical and biological quality parameters to change. These differences provide possibilities to use selected parameters as early indicators of the effects of management on soil quality. Furthermore, the results highlight the need, when investigating soil quality, to consider a wide variety of 'quality' analyses. Limited data sets, focussing on traditional measures of soil quality (e.g. total SOM and biomass-N), could lead to unsound conclusions regarding the effects of management on other functional aspects of soil quality. There are opportunities to conduct further statistical analysis of our comprehensive data set in order to develop an index suitable for quantifying soil quality in organic systems. Such an index would be of generic value to rate soil quality in diverse agricultural systems. Further work is needed to determine the applicability and conclusions of our study to other soil types and organic management regimes. The work has highlighted fundamental shifts in microbial community structure and functioning following conversion from conventional to organic management. There is a need to characterise and quantify these changes. This will provide new groups of 'indicator' organisms which could be suitable for assessing changes to soil quality, and could also provide opportunities to manage soil microbial communities to improve the sustainability of organic and conventional farming

Monitoring Soil Characteristics in Organic Farming: A Comparison of Field vs. Laboratory Methods

Soil quality plays a key role in organic farming. In practice its evaluation is not so simple because there are many indicators that could be used. In our research we used simple field methods (soil quality test kit) and compared the data with traditional evaluation used in the laboratory