I would like to relay the article written by Oldfield et al. (2015):
How much SOM is needed for sustainable agriculture?
December 2015 - Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13(10):527-527
DOI: 10.1890/1540-9295-13.10.527
What are you suggestions to address this question in regards to the arguments the authors have provided?
"Effective soil management requires targets for SOM levels as well as prescribed farming techniques for achieving them. We argue that the information that land managers need is quantitative: how much SOM is required to achieve desired production and environmental goals, and how can these targets be reached?"
Thats s million dollar question , unless experimented in an agroecosystem which has such a huge diversity by all dimensions. ...Should it be organic matter alone for sustaining agriculture , researchers, by and large , have purely divided opinions...
Dear Thomas,
see their paper published in 2018: Oldfield, E.E., Wood, S.A., Bradford, M.A., 2017. Direct effects of soil organic matter on productivity mirror those observed with organic amendments. Plant Soil. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3513-5.
Prof. Rattan Lal has been published also a lot...
Best Regards
Nils
A typical soil should contain 4 to 6 percent organic matter for normal functioning in a sustainable crop production system. Maintenance of organic matter at this level may be possible in temperate and sub-tropical regions without much effort. However, it is very difficult to maintain this much organic matter in the tropics and humid tropics. Frequent disturbance of soil through tillage would also increase the rate of organic matter decomposition. Erosion of topsoil and intensive farming aggravate the situation.
Organic matter content of a soil can be taken as an index of its fertility. According to the laws of nature, soil cannot store organic matter beyond a particular level. In the humid tropics, the maximum organic matter content possible in the soil is about 6.0 percent (Exceptions are organic soil such as peat, which may contain more organic matter because of the presence of undecomposed organic materials).
In soil test analysis, if a sandy soil contains more than 0.9 percent organic carbon (1.5% organic matter), it will be considered to contain “high” amount of nitrogen. However, in loamy and clayey soils, the benchmark for classifying organic carbon status as “high” is 1.5 percent (2.6% organic matter).
Sustaining a given organic carbon level under a given land use , itself is a stupendous task. Secondly , such organic carbon thresholds need to be worked out with respect to a given land use , instead of using a generalised classification.
Interesting question. Soil organic matter (SOM) present in soils in the form of macro/micro flora (root, shoot & litter), fauna (organisms) and organic colloids. Sustaining all these requires suitable environment (Soil type, Climate, Cropping system, Crop variety and External organic/chemical inputs etc). Due to this multi inter-co-relationships thus, a multidisciplinary approach in long term experiments could able to find out desire answer qualitatively/quantitatively.
Advantages of Organic Fertilizer: In addition to releasing nutrients, as organic fertilizers break down, they improve the structure of the soil and increase its ability to hold water and nutrients. Over time, organic fertilizers will make your soil–and plants–healthy and strong.
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