Soil natural carbon is without a doubt professed to be the key driver of soil richness , the significant impact of which is noticeable on an entire scope of soil properties , along these lines, potentially guaranteeing the better yield execution . Controlling soil carbon is most staggering errand, however , it looks simple ( many would advocate basic utilization of fertilizers and excrements) . In this foundation, , I propose following inquiries to our educated partners to please edify us with your shear insight of learning :
* How should we advance the natural issue substance of the dirt and to hold it as inheritance carbon ?
* How will we manage diverse carbon pools of soil versus decision of yield?
* How does neglected period risks the net increase in carbon through going before harvests ?
* What are the alternatives of increasingly unmanageable types of carbon and their potential job in long haul supportability in harvest creation ?
Much obliged and kind respects
Dear Ravinda,
You mention some very good points. To start off I will give hope that the maintaining of soil carbon has been demonstrated in the Terra Preta soils. In the Amazon Jungle the Amerindians were able to produce deep black soils which maintain their productivity. These soils feature a large amount of recycled vegetable and manure and significant amounts of charcoal. This black soil was produced to 3 meters plus and were found in an area equivalent to modern France. The carbon is these soils reach 300,000 kg/ha Carbon where the background soils oxisols are very acid and depleted do not support cropping and have less than 7,000 kg/ha Carbon.
Biochar which would produce charcoal for soil amendment and biofuel which is renewable has all potential to improve the planets worst soils provide abundant energy and improve our soils and our food systems.
The key to this plan is using our food system as sequestration engine and also address the transition away from fossil fuels which are the source of climate change and are nonrenewable and highly contaminating.
This solution for world will be focused on acid infertile soils where there is 365 a year growth and excellent water resources their big limitation is their acid depleted state which this system addresses.
Although biochar is one proven way to conclusively increase soil carbon and reverse acid soil infertility it is one of many approaches. In trial of biochar the use of compost is giving increased results and to a lesser extent manure and no till farming is effective.
The incorporation of linked animal and plant systems have great potential.
The equilibrium ability of soil to accumulate soil carbon is pH and clay dependent. As the clay and Calcium levels are optimized this optimizes the fixing and maintaining of soil carbon.
Acid soil which are old and weathered have a deteriorated clay condition which leads to toxicity issues. Much of this is related to the loss of Silicon which greatly increase the adaptation of soils when they become re mineralized.
Organic matter is pretty much important regarding soil health as well as crop productivity. While an indicator of soil quality, a lot of organic matter is in extremely stable forms, and the nutrient contents in such forms are difficult for plants to use. The active, labile fraction, however, is a modest but important part of the organic matter.
View the abstract at https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/aj/abstracts/105/2/493
Sir,
Dr.Paul has shown a perfect photo for the evidence of influence of soil Org C on plant growth
Anybody can test and determine the level of Soil Organic C by using 'Om kit' method:
1. Take 4 g of soil (
Both clay and organic matter have negative overall charge and repel each other. As cations such as Calcium are rich in solution the multiple charged cation causes an linking of the clay and organic which causes flocculation. In this precipitated form the vital humus carbon components is cloaked and not so easily degraded by microbial action. The water and C are linked and as carbon is conserved and improved the capacity of soils to retain and utilize oxygen and water improve. The organic matter also serves as nutritional based for beneficial soil biology. Worms are well able to stimulate the soil aggregation and lead to a soil rich in organic matter. Pastures managed for favoring worms are one of richest environments for high organic matter soils. A single worm can produce 5 Kg of castings in a year and in a well managed hectare the worm population can excess 1,000,000. In a world with issues of global warming global worming is one of the soil lutions.
Paul Reed Hepperly Thank you for your valuable feedback , your answers are ver informative sir.
Dear Ravindra,
Organic matter is a reference of soil fertility, however, it is important to consider the pH, texture and CIC, to know if a soil is fertile or not, and allow a good production. Many soils with abundant content of organic matter, have very acidic pH therefore those soils are not used to plant crops.
Maria Angélica Ormeño Díaz your ans will be very valuable to me mam.
Sir,
Madam Maria rightly said about soil pH and texture besides SOC.
Thanks
I believe well over one half of all soils are not optimized in pH. The group which shows the most potential for improvement are the red soil acid tropics. We need to help people in those areas find the native liming resource and use them efficiently. When Calcium is raised the ability to counteract toxicity and provide nutrient increases as well as the ability to accrue higher more stable soil organic matter levels in an equilibrium state.
Paul Reed Hepperly sir your answers are very informative thank u sir for yr valuable feedback.
The depleted acid soil is a consequence of leaching of the mineral essence out of the soil profile as a result of long periods when the precipitation has exceeded evaporation.
Under these condition soil acid infertility is result of a combination of multiple toxicities iron, aluminum and manganese and multiple deficiencies. While aluminum becomes soluble in the acid condition a liming to 5.7 pH will remove the toxicity environment.
The targeting of the limiting macro secondary and micronutrients can be addressed and the acid soil which are often low in organic matter can be targeted by manure compost rotations and cover cropping.
Many of the acid infertile soil are deficient in Silicon which is needed to enhance pest and disease resistance and ability to withstand fluctuating environments. Biochar is particularly useful because it can give both carbon enhancement but also a liming effect.
While soil organic matter does not guarantee flawless results it does help in multiple ways and by measuring Carbon the soil result can be tracked and monitored as biochemical indicator.
If you have an old red soil you might be very challenged but results can improving greatly by targeting regenerative management tactics which can put the black back. In acid tropical soils most the native cation exchange capacity is in the soil organic matter.
Both improving pH and increasing soil organic matter are more than additive in improving cation exchange capacity.
One of the issues with organic amendment is it is slowly available. With manures the availability is much more rapid. In use of compost plus manure can give the best of both worlds with quick response as a starter and season long feeding. I have found that using 4 parts by volume leaf manure compost and 1 part vermicompost which is really a manure gives a best of both worlds response. This is a wholly organic approach. The results of using these mixtures can exceed the results with synthetic fertilizer based on nutrient requirements. The use of ammoniated nitrogen in particular can greatly increase the decay of soil organic matter. Besides getting pH adjusted the elimination of ammoniated fertilizer with substitution of organic amendment can be very helpful in returning to higher levels of soil organic matter rather than losing it. Besides stimulating the rapid decay of soil organic matter ammoniated fertilizer is very acidifying which is quite problematic in tropical red soils which are low buffering capacity and already have soil acidity infertility concept. Soil organic matter buffers the soil reaction increasing nutrient availability while decreasing toxicity reactions.
The maximum retention of carbon is the form of biochar. This is a form of charcoal made by heating straw, manure, or wood without oxygen in the pyrolysis process. The life of this type of carbon can last thousands of years.
The higher temperature of the pyrolysis is related to a more alkaline final product. For the acid soil tropics a relatively high temperature would be appropriate superior to 400 C.
In the case of neutral or alkaline soils the low temperature pyrolysis can give a more neutral material which would not lead to over alkaline reaction which aggravates micronutrient deficiency.
In the studies of biochar in Virginia in a red acid Ultisol the best result was a combination of compost with biochar.
Biochar can be useful for compost mixtures and in substrates for producing inoculums.
Without much reservation biochar would be very recommended in acid soil tropics.
Paul Reed Hepperly when we had an experimental trial on biochar results were also very good and it had a good amount of yield too.
The transformation using organic materials and biochar is shown in terra preta. The unimproved red oxisol has less than 7,000 kg/ha and the Amerindian soil which is improved has up to and 300,000 kg.har Carbon. This is equivalent to taking 1,000,000 kg of carbon dioxide for each hectare so transformed. In biochar reactors there is potential to harvest have of carbon as renewable fuel and energy and investing the other half into the land itself to give vibrant ability to improve both the energy and food systems simultaneously. This approach should be emphasized in the red acid soil tropics.
After the top soil has 5% or more soil organic matter there is plateau response. Most farmers are dealing with 2% or less soil organic matter to start with. It is important for producers to baseline their soils and make a conservation and improvement plan. The soils can be tested to verify improvements are being made and to suggest changes which are needed in your plans. Ideally our agencies can help farmers become educated in this need and even set up encouragements which will be directed at the soil resource. Liming for acid soils needs a lot of education and there might not be much infrastructure to make this available in many areas. Cooperatives can very important in helping farmers get the information and equipment to make their operations more viable.
Not all soils are acid but a very large portion particularly in the tropics are.
In areas where the evaporation rates exceed the precipitation the salt contents can accumulate in the soil surface and the soils are often alkaline.
In the global soil map the blue areas are areas of semi arid and arid conditions with alkaline and salt issue.
When soils are over 7.5 they may experience issues with unavailability of phosphorus and micronutrients. These soils can be low in soil organic matter based on the lack of vibrant plant growth to support the accumulation of plant residues which give rise soil humus.
In the arid and semi arid landscape many soils have lost their fine silt and clay and are composed largely of sand.
Sand has excellent drainage but is very low in water retention and nutrients.
Sands are difficult in increasing the soil organic matter content.
When silt and clay can be located this is very useful for improving issues we are talking about. The equilibrium ability to raise soil organic matter would be limited by lack of clay and silt and the addition will allow organic amendment to be fixed in the soil.
In areas which have been washed the fine sediment is found at topographic low points. In traditional agricultural systems many of the farmers would use the muck sediments to enrich their fields and compost.
While compost in moist areas are done in open field above ground. The ability to make trenches and divert waters can allow composting in low moisture areas. Pit composts taking advantage of seasonal moisture is one option.
When soils are optimized for soil organic matter they are able to withstand periodic drought based on the ability of soil organic matter to multiply the capture and retention of water. While 100 units of dry soil at 1% soil organic matter can capture and maintain some 28 units of water in a 5% soil organic matter the same 100 units of dry soil can capture over 200 unites water.
Considering the ability of soils to improve water use which is the major limiting factor globally the targeting of soil organic matter is greatly needed because of prevailing water shortage to feed a growing populations.
Recently I worked on a volunteer service in Guinea West Africa. One thing which was quite amazing within short distance the red acid soils were found close to calcareous rocks and soils which are neutral or alkaline. Taking advantage of calcareous material found locally can be employed to improve the greatly compromised red acid tropical soils. Within the village is copious supply of manures which are not recycled efficiently. Where I resided the basic food had a large rice component. The use of rice hulls which are very high in silicon can help re-mineralize the old weathered red soil which has lost critical silica. Rice hulls would be ideal for making biochar which can be targeted for acid fields close to the village. The ability to mineralize and re-mineralize these soils can be useful for regenerative management. In the African village the animals are housed at night in the village and during day pasture outside the community. The organic matter around the village I resided was over 7 meters thick. The ability of intensive vegetable farming can be a way to use the improved soils and improve village nutrition. African villages have great potential to improve their health and diets by utilizing the soil resources more consciously. Many of traditional agricultural practices have been lost as agriculture policies favor the agricultural input industry instead of utilizing the natural environment to the maximum.
Paul Reed Hepperly Your answers are very valuable and as per the question thank you thanks a lot for your feedback sir
Terra Prata and Biochar are not the same. The soil in the south was established over a long time, and retained the unique characteristics of high carbon in a localized oxisol. In fact there are a lot of properties not fully understood about the way it maintains a constant depth despite mining operations. Adding biochar also comes from certain environmentally unfriendly practices and in some cases has shown to increase airborne CO2. Biochar additionally has a period of 'saturation' and will most likely decrease your annual yields, especially when compared with compost.
When wanting to increase soil structure and bio-availability we must factor in all aspects of soil and plant relationships, or more simply learn to see multidimensionally. Vegetable compost, with it's low salt index as well as vermicastings (worm excrement) are both excellent amendments to first till into poor soil, clay or sandy. After an initial tillage, see if cover crop rotations are suitable for a no till approach. This ensures long term fungal & bacterial components and healthy pollinating populations. Keep in mind if you are in cold climates, and untilled field will warm up more slowly than a plowed one.
We have the ability to create localized underground aquifers through proper mulching, contour swales and planting, rotational animal and plant procedures. Salt problems in the soil can be mitigated by keyline diversions and elevated planting. If we properly utilize sustainable techniques soil carbon shouldn't fall below 5%, even in new or sandy soils. Aquaculture should also play a big role in agriculture, as one of the results from proper water management is an increase in localized water. If everybody were to pitch in, a localized forest ecosystem could be established and lead to increases of precipitation & humidity.
Dear Don Pascale, You are right to suggest terra preta and biochar are not completely the same but they are clearly related and the idea of promoting a long term sustainable and regenerative food system can be seen in both.
Terra preta has significant amounts of charcoal presumed from cooking and slash and burn agriculture. The terra preta soil also shows pottery remains and evidence of food scraps and excrement. I concur with your assessment that biochar does not substitute for composting. When the biochar is produced so that char can be used as amendment and the other portion is used for renewable fuel it will constitute a substitute which carbon negative in that carbon is withdrawl from plant material and retained in the soil rather than increasing greenhouse gases.
The oxisols of Brazil showed very positive results from terra preta and with amendment with biochar at least part of this is a liming effect for acid soils. In work in Virginia I was involved with biochar was very effective in acid ultisols. These two soil types represent about half of all tropical soils.
Because of the alkaline nature of biochar it would be potentially able to lock up micronutrients in alkaline soils. Biochar or terra preta should not be considered a magic one all silver bullet and as you suggests we need to stress systematic approaches.
I do not agree with biochar being an inherently unfriendly system as it can wean the energy system off fossil fuel use and can contribute to greatly increased soil carbon over a long term.
well, upto a certain extent it is true specifically for organic agriculture while in other situations ,responses may be differential due to addition of synthetci fertilizers for crop rearing.
Organic matter per se is having the capacity to bind soil nutrients which may be readily vailable and absorbed by the plant roots to generate instant response in terms of better growth,vigour and yield attributes.
Yes, the role of inorganic fertilizers in the plant growth will be determined only by organics
One can use elevated pH and phosphorus to create micronutrient deficiencies. For a crop like maize the use of 5 urea and 1 zinc sulfate kg/ha in foliar sprays can be very effective for this issue. The raising of pH with high P can be associate with Zinc, Iron, Manganese, Copper and boron issues. The full foliar analysis on the crop of interest can be done at about 20 to 30 days after planting allowing for a foliar program which will give full nutrition.
Organic materia is very important for soil fertility and soil conservation, which improve the growth of plants as well.
It helps some physical properties such texture, structures and water containing and moviment. Helps in chemical properties such increasing cations exchange capacity which the soil can hold more cations and anions that cant be washed during high precipitatio or watering. Helps in biological properties, providing the carbon and nitrogen for microbial plant interactions. But in total of soil is recommended only 5% of organic Materia not more than that.
Organic matter in the soil alone is not sufficient to obtain good growth of plants, but it can be evidence whether that the soil is fertile or non-fertile, because soils differ in their content of organic matter found in their natural composition according to structure.
Our colleague Ali Alhayany has suggested that soil can not live on organic matter alone. I would like to suggest that this may not be totally true. In virgin soils the soil organic matters were over 5% and the activity of the soil microbes were able to optimize the plant productivity. With the monoculture crop production these tilled soils now have 2% and less organic matter losing 60 to 90% of the original soil organic matter. The impoverished soils do result remarkably to being supplemented with synthetic fertilizers but the virgin soils can give equal and superior results from the massive mineralization in a well charge soil with optimized soil organic matter. When stress the high soil organic matter soils give superior results because of the ability of soil organic matter to better capture and recirculated non optimized rainfall events. When soil organic matter is optimized it can provide the water and nutrients needed for optimized plant performance.
La materia orgánica en el suelo solo no es suficiente para obtener un buen crecimiento de las plantas, pero puede ser evidencia si el suelo es fértil o no fértil, porque los suelos difieren en el contenido de materia orgánica que se encuentra en su composición natural de acuerdo con la estructura. Mejora propiendas físicas como la porosidad, densidad, infiltración y propiedades químicas como la cic, pH
For every 1% soil organic matter about 30 kg/ha N can be provided for an annual crop. At 5% soil organic matter the requirements for a highly productive and high demanding crop like maize is possible at 2% soil organic matter it cannot. The use of both optimized organic matter and nutrients can lead to higher yields, stability and quality than a strictly conventional chemical input approach.
Soil Organic Matter (SOM) is really important to accelerate the crop performance in the field.
The decomposition rate of organic matter is higher in Bangladesh due to the climatic parameters such as temperature, humidity, etc. The annual demand for the organic matter for agricultural lands is not at a perfect level in Bangladesh.
•Bangladesh situates in a subtropical region where the temperature is really higher or 7-8 months out of 12 months. The higher temperature is suitable for the decomposition of organic matter.
•The dry and wet condition of the climate of our country is suitable for the rapid oxidation of organic matter.
•The pH value of Bangladesh soils is almost suitable for microorganisms. The rapid decomposition of organic matter can occur because of the activity of microorganisms.
https://www.earthreview.org/soil-organic-matter-decline-bangladesh/
Kind Regards,
Md. Nayem Hasan Munna
Founder, EarthReview https://www.earthreview.org
Soil and Environmental Sciences, The University of Barishal, Bangladesh.
Website: https://www.nayemhasanmunna.info "Know the Nature, Save the Earth"
Organic matter is important for soil health and crop productivity and soil quality.
Yes. Organic matter can improve the water holding capacity and porosity. Organic matter improves soil structure by aggregation of particles and also which reduce the bulk density of soil. It supplies more N, P, S, B and Mo. It act as chelating agent and supply some metallic elements to plants.
Organic matters in soils act as nutrient reservoir of the soils. It reduces compactness, increases water infiltration capacity, increases buffering and exchange capacity and affects the activities of micro-flora and micro-fauna of the soil. For better plant growth, it is a source of Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Organic substances in soil have a direct physiological effect on plants and hence act for better crop production in the field.
This is an inappropriately worded question. Better than? Better than what? Commercial high salt index poorly treated soils? High carbon content is achieved and maintained through cover cropping, plant spacing and rotation by plant family with a potential addition of compost and/or pre-composted manure (preferably rabbit, goat, sheep, chicken or cow) not to be applied months before harvest to avoid disease transfer. Proper crop growth contains the above, as wells as an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) that favors organic and biological control over synthetic chemicals to avoid disturbing soil biota and the natural insects present, especially predatory species.
Dear Ravindra , please have a look at these details , how you people have plagiarised my question , this is hippocracy , please remove this question immediately from researchgate .
The original question was posted on September 29, 2017 by respected Anoop Kumar Srivastava:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do-you-feel-soil-organic-matter-is-a-guarantee-to-better-crop-performance
After this, we do have 4 plagiarised questions:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_feel_soil_organic_matter_is_a_guarantee_to_better_crop_performance4
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_feel_soil_organic_matter_is_a_guarantee_to_better_crop_performance3
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_feel_soil_organic_matter_is_a_guarantee_to_better_crop_performance2
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is-soil-organic-matter-is-a-guarantee-to-better-crop-performance-in-the-field/5
All this plagiarised questions should be removed immediately!..courtesy Ljubomir Jacić
Request other colleagues also to kindly be on guard towards such researchers.....
Soil is a living, dynamic ecosystem. Healthy soil is teeming with microscopic and larger organisms that perform many vital functions including converting dead and decaying matter as well as minerals to plant nutrients. Different soil organisms feed on different organic substrates. Their biological activity depends on the organic matter supply. Nutrient exchanges between organic matter, water and soil are essential to soil fertility and need to be maintained for sustainable production purposes. Where the soil is exploited for crop production without restoring the organic matter and nutrient contents and maintaining a good structure, the nutrient cycles are broken, soil fertility declines and the balance in the agro-ecosystem is destroyed. Soil organic matter – the product of on-site biological decomposition – affects the chemical and physical properties of the soil and its overall health. Its composition and breakdown rate affect: the soil structure and porosity; the water infiltration rate and moisture holding capacity of soils; the diversity and biological activity of soil organisms; and plant nutrient availability Organic matter plays a significant role in crop production and soil health by improving physical, chemical, and biological functions in the soil. Increasing levels of organic matter aid in soil structure, water-holding capacity, nutrient mineralization, biological activity, and water and air infiltration rates. Soil organic matter significantly improves the soil's capacity to store and supply essential nutrients and to retain toxic elements. It allows the soil to cope with changes in soil acidity, and helps soil minerals to decompose faster. Organic matter is a reservoir of nutrients that can be released to the soil. Each percent of organic matter in the soil releases 20 to 30 pounds of nitrogen, 4.5 to 6.6 pounds of P2O5, and 2 to 3 pounds of sulfur per year.
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