Soil building
Last updated
Last updated
Building soil requires a long-term management plan to improve soil organic matter, feed beneficial soil microbes and ensure nutrient supply to plants. This long-term plan requires growers to monitor their management practices over time and to evaluate how these practices affect soil quality.
Soil is home to a complex assemblage of organisms that interact to significantly impact both aboveground and belowground processes (Hooper et al. 2000). The soil food web is the community of organisms living all or part of their lives in the soil. Soil-dwelling organisms play key roles in soil function, providing the foundation for such critical processes as soil structure development, decomposition and nutrient cycling, bioremediation, and promotion of plant health and diversity (Coleman et al. 2004). Soil organic matter is the base resource that supplies energy and nutrients used by plants and other organisms. Soil organic matter includes all the organic substances in or on the soil, including plant- and animal-derived material, in various stages of decay.
Soil organic matter plays an important role in integrating many aspects of soil health. Soil organic matter can be divided into labile and stable pools, each of which has different characteristics and functions in the soil. In agricultural soils, organic matter can range from 1 to 8 percent depending on climate, soil type, and soil management practices.
The quantity of organic matter in a given soil is the result of a balance between organic matter inputs, such as crop residues, manure, and compost, and the rate of organic matter decomposition. Organic matter inputs can be influenced by crop management, such as the use of cover crops, crop rotations, and residue management, as well as soil management, such as using organic forms of nutrients like compost and manure. The quantity of labile organic matter generally responds to changes in management practices more quickly than the quantity of stable soil organic matter, so changes in labile organic matter levels can serve as a leading indicator of long-term trends in total organic matter levels.
Step wise to building soil (Amrut mitti)