New soil, new opportunities: technologies for improving soil health

Farmers tested the quality of their soil by burying a pair of pants in the ground.

The idea was that the healthier the microorganisms in the soil, bacteria and fungi, the faster the tissue would be eaten. If you bury your pants today, there's a good chance you'll find them in pristine condition a year from now.

The reason your pants won't be harmed is because there won't be anyone to eat them. According to experts, more than half of the world's agricultural soil has already been degraded, losing beneficial microorganisms.

In India, soil degradation, along with debt burden, is one of the factors that has led to a shocking statistic: an average of 30 people commit suicide every day in the country's agricultural sector.

Чтобы улучшить ситуацию, популярный индийский гуру Садхгуру создал компанию SaveSoil. Целью компании является улучшение качества почвы во всем мире. Почва должна сохранять не менее 3% органического содержания. «Если мы уничтожим органику в почве, то она станет песком, и все закончится», — говорит он. «Если мы не будем заниматься проблемой почвы, мы все окажемся в пустыне».

History has shown us the devastating effects of poor soil. If soil degradation occurs faster than its fertility is restored, it becomes almost impossible to maintain agricultural production. The topsoil is found at the top of the soil, which has been degraded by centuries of agriculture, significantly reducing the ability to grow food crops.

Существует несколько причин деградации почвы, от чрезмерного выпаса скота до выращивания только одной сельскохозяйственной культуры раз за разом, а также   чрезмерного использования гербицидов. Одним из главных факторов, снижающим плодородие почвы, является технология, которая произвела революцию в сельском хозяйстве — плуг.

All over the world, from small subsistence farms in Africa to the huge mechanized farms of North Dakota, this very old technology lies at the heart of agriculture.

The modern plow turns the soil over to remove weeds, but in doing so exposes and kills microorganisms that are vital to its fertility.

Плуг, наряду с другими машинами, такими как зерноуборочный комбайн, расширил масштабы, скорость и продуктивность сельского хозяйства, что привело к более эффективной культивации большего количества земель. Но Бен Раскин, глава отдела агролесоводства и садоводства в Почвенной ассоциации Великобритании, говорит, что следует переосмыслить роль технологий в сельском хозяйстве. «Мы должны убедиться, что технология поддерживает здоровье почвы и растений», — говорит он.

This means the need for new tools. Farm equipment suppliers such as John Deere are now introducing “no-till” farm equipment designed to minimize soil disturbance. This type of equipment is superior to a traditional plow in terms of productivity. In this case, the soil is not plowed. Instead, seeds are planted through the remains of previous crops with planters or drills that make a V-shaped slot, place the seeds in it and close it. For example, seed drills, which drop seeds into small holes rather than using a large blade to dig a long trench.

This also involves the use of robots, which are more gentle in planting seeds and pulling out weeds. One such device is the Robotti, made by Danish agricultural technology firm AgroIntelli.

Until now, agricultural technology has focused on chemical [pesticides] and physical [machinery] areas, but now it is time to think about biology. Currently, scientists have identified only about 10% organisms living in soil.

Understanding soil composition could spawn entirely new industries, such as biotechnology, which focuses on sequencing the genes of microbes in soil in order to provide farmers with better nutrients for their land.

Interesting and potentially radical ideas can also lie in the area of simple and old-fashioned methods. For example, one experiment conducted through the Soil Association's Innovative Farmers program used willow chip mulch tied around trees to suppress weeds and disease. But it was additionally discovered that the acid contained in it actually stimulates an immune response in the trees.

Кроме того, почва по которой мы ходим, может содержать вещества используемые в медицине. Согласно статье в Chemistry World, натуральные продукты из микробиома почвы являются перспективным источником лекарственных соединений. Например, тейксобактин — токсин, который может быть положен в основу нового класса антибиотиков был обнаружен путем просеивания образцов почвы.

For farmers concerned about soil quality but not willing to hang up their pants, there are more modern ways to measure it. Of course, soil samples can be sent to a laboratory for testing. However, this is an expensive pleasure. In the era of widespread availability of smartphones and the Internet, alternative solutions are possible. Jack Ingle is the director Harvest Agri, a British firm that sells a device called a microbiometric soil test. Farmers take a soil sample and add it to a test tube containing a special solution, which is then transferred to paper. Using a free app available on both Android and iPhone, the sample can be scanned to reveal a number that determines how many fungal and bacterial organisms are present in the soil.

And it's not just farmers who measure soil quality. A team of scientists has created a database of soil health measurements collected from various sites around the world called SoilHealthDB. And last year, the European Union created the EU Soil Observatory to collect and track soil data, support soil research and develop soil policies.

Но как считает профессор Монтгомери, большая часть будущего сельскохозяйственных технологий может заключаться в изучении прошлого. «Потребуется некоторая древняя мудрость, объединенная с современными технологиями — датчиками, роботами и поиском микробных инокулянтов [полезных микроорганизмов]», — говорит он.