SOIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Good soil management is key to a sustainable farming operation. In most cases, there is no conflict between good, profitable farming, improving or maintaining soil fertility (and the capital value of the farm), and good environmental management, since they all require that soils are maintained or improved.
Obviously, what a farmer can achieve by good management is highly dependent on the soils and climate of the area, but it is also clear that bad soil management can very quickly reduce the value of land for agriculture and lead to environmental problems.

Soil is the basis of farming. It delivers water and nutrients to crops, physically supports plants, helps control pests, determines where rainfall goes after it hits the earth, and protects the quality of drinking water, air, and wildlife habitat. Farm soil management systems are a legal requirement in some countries. Where this is the case, agronomy businesses set themselves up to provide management systems or plans as a service. 

Ingredient of a soil management system:

 

Soil and rotation suitability:

Crop rotations are at the heart of organic farming, and help organic systems to protect our environment. They involve changing the type of crop grown in one area on a regular basis. Organic farmers plant alternate groups of plants (roots, cereals, brassicas, legumes) to add fertility and prevent pests and diseases from building up. Some plants, like clover, add nutrients to the soil – while wheat and potatoes use up nutrients. Rotations often include a ‘rest’ period for individual fields or plots, where grass or a ‘green manure’ such as clover is planted for a season or more, before being grazed or ploughed into the soil to add fertility. This is known as planting a ‘ley’. While using crop rotations might sound old fashioned, it is a much more effective and sophisticated system than relying on chemicals. Using chemicals to fertilise the soil often only provides crops with the three basic elements that they need to grow, rather than providing them with all the nutrients they need.

Crop rotations therefore have many important functions they help to control pests and diseases and maintain soil fertility, maintain soil organic matter levels and soil structure, they ensure that enough nutrients are available to different crops each year.

The overall result of these techniques is that organic farming reduces environmental pollution and the release of greenhouse gases from food production. Together with the focus on maintaing soil health this ensures that organic farming is better for the environment than more intensive systems.

 Classification and management of soil erosion:

 Knowledge of the soil types in the field is critical for determining whether conservation agriculture is feasible in a specific field Factors influencing field variability and yield potential

• Soil drainage

• Texture

• Organic matter

• Erosion spots

• Compaction

While some factors can't be changed, many can be addressed through management

Internal drainage:

Both natural and man-made drainage can make a difference. Better-drained soils usually have a yield advantage when crops are grown in high residue systems In CA channels formed by crop roots and

soil biota are no longer destroyed by tillage implements and water can drain out on gravity forces and organic matter often leads to more uniform plant stands, definite link between amount of tillage performed and the soil's ability to hold carbon. Carbon accounts for about half of a soil's organic matter, which is critical to long-term productivity. Soil erosion is often mentioned as the cause of soil fertility decline and consequent land degradation. However, a better explanation and understanding is provided by regarding soil erosion as an effect of fertility decline and degradation processes.

Factors which affect soil erosion caused by water:

• Rainfall pattern

• Slope steepness (gradient)

• Slope length

• Soil type

• Existing erosion control structures

• Cropping practices, especially soil cover

Erosion caused by wind and Human-induced erosion: 

On level land depends on the strength of the occurring winds can happen fast with large amounts of removed soil. It can be a serious threat to agricultural production and the environment. Soil compaction depends on occurs on almost all agricultural soils, is rather "invisible" as it occurs below the soil surface, is reversible and its occurrence preventable or at least controllable.

Degraded land: land that due to natural processes or human activity is no longer able to properly sustain an economic function and/or the original natural ecological function. Soil degradation is therefore a decline in the soil's productive capacity and ability to fulfil ecological functions.

Assessments of soil condition are comparative: an uncultivated area versus a cultivated or grazed field an obvious wheeled area (where a tractor or harvester has gone) and the non-trafficked area beside it two areas on the one soil type that have had different types of management history, e.g. conventionally managed versus zero tillage in one soil profile to compare topsoil with upper subsoil and subsoil. Simple, quick and easily understood methods of assessing soil quality is Most indicators used are linked to physical properties of the soil, because they are easily seen have a profound influence on biological

and chemical soil properties, significant impact on the productivity.

Tillage erosion and soil loss due to crop harvesting:

Tillage erosion involves the translocation of soil downhill as part of tillage operations where the soil is disturbed or turned-over. Over many years, this flattens out the landscape.

Removal of soil with the harvested product is only a problem for certain crops (mainly root crops), but can be a serious problem where it does occur. It is obviously important to adjust harvesting machinery to minimise the problem. Soil moisture content also seems to be an important factor, so harvesting at times of high moisture content should be avoided. Where soil is transferred to a processing factory, soil recovery during washing or processing should be carried out, and the recovered soil recycled. 

Assessment and Management of the Risk of Soil Contamination:

The basis of agriculture is Soil. All crops for human food and animal feed depend upon it. We are losing this important natural resource by the accelerated erosion 10 some extent. In addition to this the enormous quantities of man-made waste products, sludge and other product" from new waste treatment plants even polluted water are also causing or leading to soil pollution. In order to preserve the fertility and the productivity of the soil, control measures are to be taken in a herculean manner, thereby improving the health of all living beings.

Assessing the ecological risk of contaminated soil, pesticide application, sewage sludge amendment, and other human activities leading to exposure of the terrestrial environment to hazardous substances is a complicated task with numerous associated problems. Not only is terrestrial ecological risk assessment a relatively new field of science that has developed rapidly only since the mid-1980s, but it is also complicated by the fact that soil, in contrast to most aquatic environments, is very often on private lands and traded as real estate. Professional and economic divergence between the interests of scientists, stakeholders, authorities, engineers, managers, lawyers, nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and regulators is therefore not unusual. Even neglecting those aspects, a number of unresolved problems exist in the way we currently assess risk and manage the impact of anthropogenic substances in the terrestrial environment.

Heavy metals:

Heavy metals are elements having a density greater than five in their elemental form. They mostly find specific absorption sites in the soil where they are retained very strongly either on the inorganic or organic colloids. They are widely distributed in the environment, soils, plants, animals and in their tissues. These are essential for plants and animals in trace amounts. Mainly urban and industrial aerosols, combustion of fuels, liquid and solid from animals and human beings, mining wastes, industrial and agricultural chemicals etc. are contributing heavy metal pollution. Heavy metals are present in all uncontaminated soils as the result of weathering from their parent materials. 

 Veterinary medicines:

Contamination can arise from animals excreting directly onto soil, or from application of contaminated manure or slurry. Again the risk can be managed by being confident in your source of manure, and by using a variety of different fertilisers, i.e. not all animal manure.

Management of Soil Organic Matter:

Increasing soil organic matter is widely regarded as beneficial to soil function and fertility and in agricultural production systems is integral to sustainable farming. Storing the carbon component of organic matter in agricultural, rangeland and forest soils is also seen as one way to decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and mitigate the impact of climate change. Consequently, there is great interest in quantifying the capacity of various soil types and land management practices to support increases in soil organic matter and understanding how these changes impact soil health, ecosystem

services and carbon sequestration in the medium and long-term.

If you were looking for productive farmland, you would want an ideal soil in which:

·         crops would thrive, even through dry spells,

·         roots would grow extensively,

·         implements would pull easily, and

·         the soil would resist erosion and compaction.

In other words, you would look for soil with high organic matter levels. Soil organic matter, and the soil organisms that live on it, are critical to many soil processes. It allows high crop yields and reduced input costs.

How do I build up organic matter?

·         Add organic material

·         Reduce losses

·         Manage the new dynamics of the system

Manage the changes in your new system

·         Plan how to manage changes in weed or pest problems associated with increased surface residue. Weeds and pests are not necessarily greater problems with increased residue, but may require different management strategies.

·         Monitor soil and keep records so you know what effects your practices are having. Include an organic matter test in your regular soil testing. Labs are beginning to offer tests (such as the particulate organic matter test) that measure the active fraction. Monitor changes in patterns of weed and pest problems.