For the rapid increase of soil organic matter I would like you to consider your condition of 1) soil pH and 2) clay silt content.

If your soil is very low in clay and the condition of the soil is acid the use of lime to pH 6 to 7 and the supplementation of the soil with silt and clay will increase the ability of the soil to accrue and maintain soil organic matter.

If you have ability to develop compost this can be particularly useful for increasing soil organic matter.

In addition the use of permanent forage and pasture is highly effective.

Of lesser benefit but useful are the use of cover cropping, manuring and no tillage methods. The ability to have recycling of biochar and ashes can also be very helpful.

One way to increase organic matter is regular application of organic manure/fertilizer in the soil. To increase OM is easy in wetland culture than upland. OM decomposition is slow in wetland condition. So, wetland rice based cropping system should be followed to rapid increase of OM in soil. 

Unfortunately I don't know of any quick remedy on a large scale: look at the data from the classic experiment at Rothamsted.

Reduced tillage and retention of crop residues will help.  Retention of crop residues can cause disease and weed carry over that must be managed.  Composting may be part of the solution.

For the rapid increase of soil organic matter I would like you to consider your condition of 1) soil pH and 2) clay silt content.

If your soil is very low in clay and the condition of the soil is acid the use of lime to pH 6 to 7 and the supplementation of the soil with silt and clay will increase the ability of the soil to accrue and maintain soil organic matter.

If you have ability to develop compost this can be particularly useful for increasing soil organic matter.

In addition the use of permanent forage and pasture is highly effective.

Of lesser benefit but useful are the use of cover cropping, manuring and no tillage methods. The ability to have recycling of biochar and ashes can also be very helpful.

Interesting question and equally interesting answers by our colleagues. Infact , this is the major concern , how to retain the organic carbon into the soil ( once , an increase in soil carbon is recognised through external organic input additions)  , later to be a regular pool of soil carbon , active pool or passive pool , since both  the pools have very strong implications on short term and long term multiple soil functions. Most important  is the resilience time of carbon ( often called carbon stability analysis) added through different sources ( For example organic manure versus biochar) , in addition disallowing carbon to be exposed to extremes of decomposition factors including extended fallow period. 

I think the following steps may help to build up organic matter:

1. Marginal tillage or no-tillage

2. Incorporate plant residues regularly. Plants create energy through photosynthesis. The energy can be used by the life forms in the soil.

3. Use cover crops. Fibrous fine root system stimulate soil aggregation.

4. Add organic matter inputs regularly (manure and compost). Bedded manure contain more organic material and will lead to greater gain in organic matter contain than liquid manure. Dairy manure can expected to contribute more organic matter gain.

Finally, I do not disappoint you but I should say it is very difficult to build organic matter rapidly as you wish. To my experience, in organic matter poor arid soils, we could build only 12% increase in organic matter level after continuous effort of 10 years.

Thanks all researchers to share the valuable information views on my question

Thats the reason , the concepts like conservation agriculture , integrated crop management , organic agriculture, climate smart agriculture   etc started gaining popularity. ..

Dear Ghulam and other colleagues,

Please take note of the concluding part of Dr. Tarafdar''s reply. That is the most significant response to the question asked by you. Organic matter content in soils of a particular region is strongly determined by climatic conditions, especially atmospheric temperature and rainfall/ precipitation/ relative humidity of the region. That's the reason of low soil organic matter in tropical and high soil organic matter in temperate regions. Even when bulk of organic residues is regularly added to the soils of dry tropical (arid and semiarid) zone, much of the added organic matter gets oxidized to CO2 and lost to air. Therefore, please don't expect a spectacular and stable increase in the organic matter level of your soil by the management practices.

Hope you find this input interesting and useful. 

Interesting and necessary question sir,

Hope regular  addition of organic matter in the form of manures,compost, biochar and plant residues helps in soil loosening and improving of structure and texture in addition to this all these component on decomposition increase the beneficial rhizoflora of the soil and may help in improving productivity and yield.

There are many ways to increase organic matter in soils such as: using cover crops, Farmyard manure and compost, Left plant redidues in soils.

Invite micro and macroorganisms in quantity and diversity which tend to inhabit the soil, providing adequate food and optimum shelter for them. Food in this context, is nothing but organic matter of plant and animal origin which can be easily mineralized and assimilated. It has to be continuous activity for every crop grown. As learned scientists already exhaustively suggested, please keep in mind of their very valuable points. Always aim for quantity and diversity of soil flora and fauna to improve and sustain. 

In addition to the above points, I also suggest the adoption of crop rotation (cereals with legumes), mulching and residue recycling and reduced tillage.  Also if available, the incorporation of animal manure will be useful in the long term.

Please see this paper, could be an idea. 

http://scifunam.fisica.unam.mx/mir/el/2014_itzel.pdf

The organic matter content of soils should be reflected in quantity and diversity of soil fauna and flora.  The objective has to be as earlier stated, to provide quality food for the soil sheltered living organisms. Crop rotation, mulching, vermicomposting, zero tillage are the other interventions to make the soils really fertile and productive. in essence, input should exceed the output in soil management as reflected in the content of humus, which serves as excellent buffer and a true indicator of soil richness. 

You can carbonize rice hulls which will also help biological activity.  Best is to make bokashi a highly biologically active compost with added rice hull char

http://www.reap-canada.com/online_library/IntDev/id_bokashi/Bokashi%20Nature%20Farming%20Manual%20(2006).pdf

If you are burning crop residues that also needs to stop. You need to mulch/decompose them in-field or decompose in a compost heap at the sides of fields.

Hi Ghulam,

in addition to the good suggestions above, I would consider the use of green manure. My understanding is that water is not an issue in your place so you could introduce an irrigated  summer crop (legumes best for N fixation) which biomass could be mixed to the soil before seeding your  winter crop (I'm assuming you are growing cereals). As already pointed out,  soil physical and chemical properties are important if you want to build up a stable OM. Here in southern Australia, soils are sandy and with tendency to low pH. Minimum or no tillage have become the standard practice to maintain the OM but the disadvantage is that it has increased the use of herbicides. Another practice is the addition of clay rich soil  in the top sandy  soil in order to increase its water and nutrient holding capacity  (and therefore the OM) .

I think , our major area of study should be to see , how effectively such conservation practices ensure added carbon partitioned into active pool and passive pool , with their resilience time in a given soil with a variety of land uses/cropping systems..? 

      First basic thing is every soil and climate complex  has its own capacity to retain  maximum organic matter. For example in sandy soil you may not expect OM more then 0.50% while in rain forest heavy soils it may be 2% or  more.  IN tropical soils, loss  of organic matter is faster as compared to temperate soil therefore in tropical soil efficient recycling of organic matter is effective approach rather than  putting all efforts for enhancing OM. So we need to think on this aspect before starting effort for enhancing OM content.

The second thing thing is reduce the losses of OM and the major cause is DEEP PLOUGHING that too in summer accelerate OM loss from soil and to avoid it - opt minimum tillage in comparatively low temperature season.

 Related to this second aspect is AVOID to expose soil to direct sun and rain and MULCHING  with agro-waste/weeds is the best approach. Mulching also enhance microbial activities that enhance soil OM. 

Third  aspect is  increasing perennial ( tree/shrib/grasss) cover on soil that not only contribute  to OM but also enhance  OM retention power of soil.

Forth aspect is avoid to use of nitrogenous fertilisers that accelerate the process of OM loss from soil.

Last is incorporate  split  dose organic manure 3-4 times in a year.

Now the management aspect is to be done at local level considering  the soil +climate and available flora.

THANKS AGAIN ALL FRINDS FOR THEIR VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE AND VIEWS.

Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Laghari

The CEO of Mycorrhizae Applications of Oregon Dr. Michael Amaranthus has performed some interesting experiments on low carbon substrate grown with perennial grasses that were inoculated with mycorrhizae fungi and testing the soil carbon level over a two year time frame the soil carbon level was more than doubled. You can imagine scaling this to lands where soil organic matter levels were less than 1% and getting the right mycorrhizae and grass and probably a need to add some water the potential for eliminating the excess greenhouse gas is astounding. I firmly believe that when we regenerate our soil resources to a virgin like soil organic level it is feasible and economically sound approach to warming concerns and is dependent on an educational and attitude change which we need to address. The best venue of doing this is the poorest tropical soils with the most to gain biochar is one tool as are many other compost manure and system pieces. The important thing is having a solid plan and monitoring and adapting to reach concrete Carbon goals. 

Interesting feedbacks from two learned  Pauls. Level of increase in organic matter of a given soil is largely dependent  upon the , carbon sink capacity of the soil , where soil texture dictates this process much more than any other soil fractions. Infact , this also translates the extent to which soil structural modification could be achieved through improvements in organic matter content . I strongly feel, perhaps , it is more important to retain any increase in soil organic matter into the passive pool of soil organic carbon, in order  to increase the resilience time of that carbon into the soil..? Floor management would be the most prudent exercise in this regard

Brilliant points Dr. Anoop. Will you provide details on floor management. 

Management practices that alter the living and nutrient conditions of soil organisms, such as repetitive tillage or burning of vegetation, result in a degradation of their micro environments. In turn, this results in a reduction of soil biota, both in biomass and diversity. Thus, several cases have demonstrated that it is possible to restore organic matter levels in the soil, such as using compost, cover crop / green manure crops, reduced tillage, crop rotation, perennial forage crops.  From opposite view we can concern with the factors leading to reduction in soil organic matter in an open cycle system, which can be grouped as factors that result in: decrease in biomass production; decrease in organic matter supply; and increased decomposition rates.

In our long-term experiment we maintained crop residue (20 cm+ rice straw) under double rice system. By this way organic matter (OM) status in the soil is increased after thirty years. Actually OM accumulation in the soil is a long-term process. So, regular use of different residues or organic materials with rice cropping will help to increase soil OM status.

Interesting response Dr Islam .  You would agree , such issues turn out to be more complex when we have an extended fallow period, thereby , exposing the accumulated organic carbon to further decomposition , undoing  the initial increase in organic carbon of the soil. So , adding residues , elevating the SOM , and finally retaining it into the soil ecosystem , have to be done in tandem...

Thanks Anoop Sir for nice comments. Actually temporary increase of soil organic matter specially organic C will not be sustainable unless it become the the part and parcel of the soil component through humification a long-term process. It is only possible by adding organic materials or crop residues in a regular basis. Recycling of crop residues of each crop or retaining of rice straw or stover in the field may be a practice for this purpose.

Interesting and instant  feedback  Dr Islam, appreciate it . i was wondering , how much time does it take to shift the soil C:N ration through these practices , and to what an extent,  role of soil mineralogy could be staked in such soil reactions using organic manuring /crop residue additions..?

Temperature has definite effect on the decomposition of the organic matter. This is the reason the soils of the arid region have low organic matter content. 

Shifting time mainly depends on the region because temperature may vary with region as said by Parameshwar. Depending on temperature variation C/N ratio in the soil may vary. Decomposition rate may vary with the types of organic materials/manures (e.g., rice straw with wide C/N ration and GM with lower C/N ration). The following conditions are responsible for rapid decomposition of OM:

1. Low lignin, tanin and wax contents in the organic materials.

2. Smaller state of commutation.

3. Food supply (N, P, S and Ca etc.) available.

4. Soil pH 6.0-8.0

5. Well aeration in soil.

6. Adequate moisture supply for microbial activity.

7. Temperature 30-40 degree Celsius.

8. Mixed group of compounds.

Decomposition of OM takes place in soil through several stages, but ultimate fate of the OC is to escape as CO2 (60-80% OC), assimilate into the body of microbes (3-8% of OC) and synthesis into stable humus (13-38% of OC). However, it takes at least one year to form humus from the fresh organic residues. Since there happen mineralization of native humus while a new fraction is under way of synthesis, accumulation of humus in soil through organic residues is very slow.

For a rapid increase in soil organic matter, I want you to consider the conditions:

 1) reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers to a level of 60%. If possible 0% organic.

2) after processing the first stage do narrowing the type of decomposing bacterium; currently many farmers use such as slaughterhouse blood, rotten agricultural waste melts, coconut water. the ingredients are mixed and fermented in an-aerop conditions for 21 days, to avoid explosions the vessel should be given a hose to deliver steam as a by-product of fermentation and the end of the hose must be in water so that the outside air does not enter the vessel

Check out the work done on the Loess Plateau in China for ideas.

Mixed prairie lands are the highest organic soils around the world.

These feature large ruminants as a part of a natural system.

A mixed animal plant production system can mimic these high soil organic matter generating systems.

Ideally the crop production can feature a hay stage which can feature mixed perennial legumes with perennial grass harvested for forage.

The allied animal production can combine manure and plant residue used for composts. In temperate areas the small grains can be used as nurse crops to establish the perennial simulated prairie.

Organic matter can stimulated best when the soil limitations are assessed and toxicities and deficiencies corrected.

The humus clay complex is stabilized by cationic bridges and Calcium is particularly important.

Optimized nutrition of earthworm is dependent on neutral pH, abundant Calcium and sufficient moisture and aeration for the optimum earth worm activity the stressing of legumes and compost manures which support best earthworm population.

In organic systems the elimination of ammoniated fertilizers is very important as these both acidify the soil long term and are inhibitory to symbiotic biological nitrogen fixation and earthworms.

The cover crops and perennial mix covers are able to stimulate optimized mycorrhizal fungi proliferation these fungi plant combinations stabilize soil organic matter through glomalin production which also binds soils into aggregates with much less tendency for loss by either erosion or decay of the soil organic humus.

Water by rainfall and irrigation at the level of plant evaporation is the environment which proves best for soil organic matter accumulation and development of deep organic matter rich profiles.

The building of soil organic matter is highly related to maximizing the root proliferation which is critical for feeding the system.

In terms of increasing soil organic matter I would suggest an experimental approach focused on acid soils in your area. These soils can be low in both organic matter and have a host of toxicities and deficiencies. The nontreated areas will be controls and the test plots will be areas where calcium pH and overall nutrients are optimized. Plots can be split to test the ability of mixed grass and legumes to optimize the improvement of the soil. The soil parameters such as nitrate Nitrogen and active Carbon will be measured to see the long term effects. The best idea would be to run this experiment for five years to see the accumulating effects. As another optimization would be the application of compost at 10 MT per year. The combinations of the factors should give a clear improvement and the factors can be defined by experimental and statistical comparisons. The set of the experiment might need a statistical expert as part of the personnel. Good luck on your efforts. I suggest your forage mixture to improve the soil have 3 or more legumes and 3 or more grasses. Mixed grasslands are the best way to regenerate depleted habitats.

Unfortunately there is NO fast way to increase soil OM. I would employ native trees and shrubs in the land restoration process. These plants could be planted along the contour lines with the intent of limiting as much as possible water run off. I have worked in west Africa with the tree Leucaena lucocephala which grows very quickly. It develops lots of leafy branches and these were cut even from the young trees and we let them decompose on the soil. Leucaena l. is a nitrogen fixer and the biomass it produced improved the quality of the soil where agronomic crops were grown remarkably in a couple of years. More species of trees exist in this botanical family and I am sure that some are native to Pakistan. However, an addition of grazing livestock to the plants-soil system would be a plus as more nitrogen will be added by the animals through their urine and dung.

Great class.Thank you all for nice contribution regarding this aspects.

Calcium is much under appreciated for its effects on soil. The soluble clay and organic materials will repel each other due to each holding an overall negative charge the function of soluble calcium is to flocculate the clay and organic matter and help from the well aggregated structure of fertile soil. If your soil Calcium is not at least 1,000 and the Magnesium at least 100 you need to address issues in the soil. While most soils are 2 to 0% soil organic matter the functioning of soil is optimized at 5% and superior. Organic matter in the aggregated or complexed state uses the multiple positive charge of the calcium to stabilize structure and activity improving soil tilth and aeration. The equilibrium soil organic matter is a function of both calcium and clay which have a protective activity toward the soil organic matter decay. Since it is both clay and organic matter which hold the water in the soil and the flocculated state gives capacity for both aeration and water the two most limiting soil factors this importance of organo mineral clay complex through a cationic optimization cannot be under established. The recalcitratant nature of the complex organic matter allows for accumulation of carbon and nitrogen in the soil which in turn creates a carbon nitrogen negative state meaning those critical materials are being taken from the excess greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and being deposited beneficially in the soil. The soil is the biggest unappreciated field for combating global warming.

Why do you want to increase rapidly, the organic matter content of soils?

Please be clear on science of organic matter dynamics coupled with crop needs.

If you have a lot of biomass available on the land you could produce biochar, which inoculated with compost could/should increase the content level of OM in your soil most rapidly. Check out the literature for biochar which is a powerful soil amendment, capable of improving soil pH, among other things.

Nice references Frances L. Bekele. Thanks! This is a good start. I have several good one as well. Also, there are many youtube videos that show simple methods to produce biochar which I recommend. Start small scale and try various types of biomass as they all produce biochars with different chemical characteristics. Overall, biochar is stable carbon and offer niches for soil bacteria to thrive. This is why an inoculation with compost, vermicompost, or biofertilizers will give the best results in reclaiming soil OM and building up soil fertility on degraded land.

As far as generating a rapid and conclusive increase I would suggest you concentrate on developing compost which has a conclusive soil mineral organo clay complex which does not decay rapidly.

If you have cereal straw use that as brown High Carbon and Low Nitrogen bed material use animal manure as the nigh nitrogen layer which will be stabilized with claysilt and gypsum with stabilized compost to stimulate organo clay complex.

Do you composting to complete stability with no heating and no further dry matter losses.

Apply the compost at 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 tons per hectare and following the effects year by year in 4 four years the soils should be highly differentiated and the levels of carbon can used to calculate the sequestration effects and uniform trials can point to optimization and economics.

This type of trial will give the long term benefits of using compost at different application levels and also the timing of the improvements and their dynamics.

@ Paul, it is true but it depends upon the type of soil you have. For example, in sandy soils we found that even with the application of 10 tons of compost for 10 years there was very little change in organic matter content in the soil, although an appreciable increase in microbial activity and population.

Enrichment of SOM entirely depends on the nature of soil that is the soil texture/ particle size distribution. The silty and clay soil have the great capacity to adsorb soil organic matter due to large surface areas and it is no doubt, could be easy to enhance the SOM by addition from out sources/through amendments. So enrichment of SOM varies with the types of soils.

green manure, there are several plants sria investigate which is the best for the region

One of basic cares that need to be taken is to shorten the fallow period , shorter is the fallow , greater will be the conservation of accumulated organic matter in the soil as a result of various agronomic practices.Many times , there are limited choice , especially for small farmers , in those cases , some principles of CA have to be followed to sustain any potential loss in soil fertility over a period of time...

Increase in OC is a very slow process, but waste management vis-a-vis crop production can be a suitable approach. In our experiment in western Rajasthan, we used decomposed as well as undecomposed wool waste in conjuction with inorganic fertilizers. Over a time period of three years, OC improved from 0.19 % to 0.32% (performance of decomposed & undecomposed wool waste was at par). Beside, there was a clear on field visual treatment's effect on yield and its attributing characters. Here extreme climatic conditions (winter temperature ~1-2 Degree C and summer temperature~ 48-50 degree C) are expected to decompose wool waste in soil.

It is very important and need big discussion but in general we can. Using conservation agriculture, returns plant residue, reduce extensive tillage and ............. etc.....

Addition of organic manure, inclusion of legumes in cropping system, biofertilizer based treatments, conservation agriculture, recycling of crop residue, green manuring, etc. All above practices improve organic matter in soil on sustainable basis. So one can try above options in combination with recommended doses of chemical fertilizers.

We need a much robust strategy to ensure that increase in organic matter as a result of organic manuring including green manuring , is safe guarded against any further possible loss and become a part of passive pool of soil carbon..

When I was following Dr Michael Amaranthus who is a noted mycorrhizae researcher he was able to show great increases in soil organic matter in units inoculated with mycorrhizae compared to noninoculated treatments. The glomalin glycoprotein is highly resistant to decay the ability to greatly increase soil organic matter may be very much associated with the ability to stimulate high levels of mycorrhizae for a prolonged period.