Top 5 Agricultural Inputs That Improve Soil Quality
Soil quality is a measure of how much raw soil is degraded and how much of its potential is being used. In fact, it’s such a big issue that the United Nations General Assembly designated October 16 as World Soil Day. The importance of healthy soil has been recognized for some time because it plays a critical role in our food supply. When soil is degraded, it loses its natural structure, nutrients, and moisture-holding capacity. This makes growing crops more challenging. Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can improve the quality of your soil to make growing crops easier and more profitable. Here are five top agricultural inputs that improve soil quality:
Organic matter
Organic matter is the living component of soil. It is derived from plant, animal or microbial materials. It increases the amount of organic carbon in soil and can help improve water infiltration and retention and reduce soil erosion. It’s not just important for soil health, but also improves soil biodiversity and can be used as organic fertilizer.
There are ways you can increase the organic content of your soil, including adding green manure and cover crops. Green manure is a crop that is grown for the purpose of being cut and either applied to the soil as a mulch, or ploughed back into the soil as a fertilizer.
A cover crop is any crop grown for a specific purpose. For example, a cover crop may be used as a living mulch to protect the soil from erosion, suppress weeds, and improve the soil’s fertility. Organic matter is a key component of healthy soil because it improves water retention, increases nutrient availability, and promotes the growth of healthy microorganisms and earthworms.
Compost
Compost is the ideal fertilizer and soil amendment. It’s made from a mixture of plant and animal materials that have been decomposed, such as leaves, food scraps, straw, and manure. It’s rich in carbon and other nutrients that have been released from the original source material.
Compost is a great source of nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK). It increases the amount of organic matter in soil and helps improve soil structure, drainage, and water retention. Compost can be applied to soil directly or used as a side dressing for plants.
It’s one of the best ways to bring nutrients back into the soil. Compost can be expensive to buy, but it’s easy to make at home. You can make compost from your kitchen scraps, yard trimmings, and manure from chickens, pigs, and other livestock. Composting is an easy way to make your own nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Green manure
Green manure is a crop that is grown for the purpose of being cut and either applied to the soil as a mulch, or ploughed back into the soil as a fertilizer. Legumes, such as clover, are the most commonly used green manure crops.
They are particularly valuable because they have the ability to capture nitrogen from the air and “fix” it into the soil. There are several ways to use green manure. It can be tilled into an existing crop at the end of the growing season to provide nutrients for the following year.
It can be sown as a cover crop for a short period. In this scenario, the green manure is grown for about a month before being cut and left on the surface of the soil to act as a mulch. It can also be sown in a fallow area as a long-term crop that is ploughed back into the soil in the following year.
Proper irrigation
Proper irrigation is essential to growing healthy crops. It ensures soil remains moist and doesn’t become too waterlogged. It also reduces water runoff, which can have a positive impact on the environment by reducing soil erosion and the amount of nutrients that are lost.
In addition to keeping soil healthy, irrigation can be used to increase the amount of fertilizer that is available to plants. It can also increase the amount of carbon in the soil, which is beneficial for its structure and water retention. Ideally, soil should be moist but not waterlogged.
There are several ways to irrigate your crops, including hand watering, furrow irrigation, and center pivot irrigation.
Rotational crops and no-till farming
Soil is constantly being broken down by the activities of microorganisms and insects. It is also affected by wind and water. Over time, a layer of topsoil is created and can be up to six feet deep. In order to grow crops, you need to have a certain amount of topsoil left over.
This can be eroded over time as you farm. To prevent this, you can rotate your crops. A crop rotation is a way of growing different crops in the same area at different times. This way, the same area isn’t planted with the same crop every year, which gives the soil a chance to recover.
A crop rotation sequence will include one or more of the following: Legumes, such as beans, peas, and clover; catch crops, such as rye, buckwheat, and alfalfa; and long-term crops, such as trees, vines, and shrubs.
Conclusion
Soil is a delicate ecosystem that needs to be treated with care and attention. Improving soil quality is a long-term process that requires patience, knowledge, and perseverance.
These five top agricultural inputs will help you to improve the quality of soil and make it more productive.