Improving soil health for better yields

Frank van den Heever, an independent soil health consultant, explains how Oro Agri’s Transformer® helps improve and maintain the fertility and health of soil for maximum crop production.

Fertile soil is the basis for healthy plants. Therefore, to achieve implementing a soil improvement strategy, the income/unit area must either increase or input/unit area must be lowered.

Food security and food health begin with the maintenance and improvement of soil fertility. But, unfortunately, climate change continues to place tremendous pressure on the sustainable production of agricultural produce.

As such, each production unit (farm, land and orchard) should be investigated intensively to provide baseline information for drafting purposeful strategies and managing inputs. Each investigation should start with comprehensive soil evaluation maps on a geo-referenced approach.

An essential visual measure and objective is root development. If plants need to produce at an optimum level, a well-defined root system is critical. A comprehensive soil improvement approach, which promotes crop production, focuses on soil fertility, physical soil limitations, water-use efficiency, oxygen and biological activity and diversity.

Soil fertility

Soil fertility determines the potential of the soil to produce the best yields on a sustainable basis. Soil fertility can be divided into several subsections: • Chemical balance: It is essential to correct element ratios and concentrations with initial soil preparation. Ensuring nutrient availability and the absence of any nutrient deficiencies must be well monitored and managed. The pH of the soil and salinity needs to be monitored seasonally and corrections should be made early. • Physical limitations: A loose soil structure is vital for a plant to establish a large root volume. Compaction layers, stone layers, textural transitional layers and anthropogenic waterlogged subsoils are common problems. Oro Agri’s Transformer is highly effective because it influences soil water balance and soil compaction. It allows water to penetrate compact soils, thereby alleviating compaction as root growth can follow the water penetration.

It contributes to the alleviation of soil compaction, crusting and breaking up soil clods, enhanced water penetration, enhanced leaching of salts, improvement in soil oxygen levels, soil biology conditions, and biological activity.

Various other mechanical approaches can be followed to create this ideal loose soil structure. This includes deep ploughing. The problem with mechanical loosening of soil, however, is that compaction can return. Deep ploughing also has a negative effect on microbial activity and soil carbon content.

Water-holding capacity

A good practice is to determine the water-holding capacity of all soils during the initial soil evaluation. Water-holding capacity can be effectively increased by increasing organic matter and soil depth. The application of Transformer is highly effective in this regard because of its influence on the soil-water balance.

Oxygen

Combining the ideal oxygen to water ratio, especially in the upper 10 cm of the root system, is crucial for optimal root development. Aerobic soil conditions are also very important for beneficial microbiology. As soon as oxygen is removed from the topsoil through poor irrigation practices, new root growth is suppressed and a favourable environment for pathogens exists.

Biological activity and diversity

Conventional agricultural practices have destroyed the abundance and diversity of microbes in the soil. These organisms help prepare the soil environment for optimal root development, plant nutrient uptake, water-holding capacity, oxygen availability, carbon dioxide release and temperature variation. To improve this, efforts must be made to establish and maintain a large community of micro-organisms in the soil.

The amount of organic matter and carbon are the major determining factors in the abundance of micro-organisms living in the soil. However, the diversity of micro-organisms is also crucial and is quashed by monoculture to a large extent. The best way to promote a wide variety of micro-organisms in the soil is to apply crop rotation, plant mixtures of cover crops, and alternate the organic nutrients applied to the soil.

Transformer® SA is a registered trademark of Oro Agri SA (Pty)Ltd (Reg.no. 2001/027414/07).