Many of our cultivated soils have been depleted to less than one-half of their original soil organic matter. A key measurement that reflects soil quality is soil organic matter. The baselining of this and the projection of soil organic matter goal levels is important. The development of a plan to do this can be accompanied with monitoring from year to year and the accumulation of a database. A second measure which is very important is the status of the soil pH. Soil nutrition is optimized at a relatively narrow pH level and many soils do not reach these. Thirdly the use of complete macro and micro element soil analyses in important of eliminating deficiencies and overcoming toxicities.  In arid and semi-arid areas the electroconductivity of the soil is important to ensure salinity issues are not constraining productivity. Percolation of the soil is a very important characteristic and if the soil does not percolation aeration will not allow optimized root growth so important for soil. The soil penetrometer is an effective tool related to the density of soil and compacted layers not facilitating root growth.  Finally the assay of biological life is incredibly important in temperate areas earthworms would be a prime indicator of this. In the tropics of Australia, the elimination of termites lowered soil nitrogen over 85% in just 18 months. Soil health is also very much reflected by mycorrhizal fungi prevalence and diversity. 

Let me say...a fertile soil will have much better soil health in terms of microbial load and higher plant available nutrient pool .Sustaining such fertile soil in an active health mode is perhaps most challenging. Integrated soil fertility management, cropping sequence with legumes as a part of it, use of  cover crops backed up  by CA are some of the viable options...

Interesting responses ...What i feel, soil health or another synonymous term soil quality ( though very fine difference exists) are very indicative terms when you link such important property to different ecological functions. In this background , what is your take on the stronger necessity of having abridged soil properties narrating the soil health with respect to given crop, its  production sustainability  plus ecological functions ....Very often various indices of soil health do not correlated with production sustainability..?

In addition to Physical, Chemical, and Biological parameters, we should include Hydrological one. Which includes available water in the root zone. This parameter is very important in the Sahelian zone where soil moisture is key for improving crop productivity.  

The important soil health indicators are: Texture, bulk density, aggregation, pore size distribution and continuity, available water capacity, non-limiting water range, infiltration rate, effective rooting zone, soil temperature, pH, base saturation, cation exchange capacity, total and plant available nutrients, soil organic matter, earthworm population and other soil micro and macro fauna activity, soil biomass carbon, total soil organic carbon, beneficial enzyme activities.

Preparation of soil health card is a qualitative approach for assessment, which depicts both the capacity of a soil to perform certain functions (infiltrate, decompose, cycling of nutrient and others) and soil attributes (structure, soil color, root morphology, earthworms and others). In the scorecard, each soil health indicator is operationized to conform the following subject rating scale:

1. Healthy : Performance of function is optimal and structure is normal.

2. Impaired : An abnormality in function and/or structure

3. Unhealthy: Severe restriction or inability to perform normal function, severe deformity or loss of structure, disabled.

Can any one throw some light , when was  the system of  soil health card launched for the first time ??

Soil sickness arose when all necessary soil nutrients are lacking and as such evaluate soil parameters in terms of their nutrient status and that will tell the soil conditions and if proved appropriate measures can now now applied to restore such soil

Soil Health Card was an initiative from Cornell University in New York State. 

Dear Jayanta:

Please visit this good Website, regarding soil health in India:

http://www.soilhealth.dac.gov.in/ 

Regards. --- Hilmi

Well said Paul . and  they launched this concept  with only  few soil properties to give soil health advisory to growers...

Dr. Srivastava, I think soil health card was first introduced by Singer and Ewing in the year 2000. They consider dynamic soil properties related to health are: organic matter content, diversity and number of organisms, and microbial constituents or products. Later on farmers based assessment for soil health scorecard was prepared. The scale corresponding to healthy (3-4); impaired (1.5-2.5) , and unhealthy (0-1).

I think , Paul can precisely speak about this . I remember the discussion on soil health card , there was one question about Soil Health Card, someone from Srilanka answered  it very precisely , and i remember very well in early 1900s ,  history of soil health card history can be traced, with three or four soil properties to be able to narrate soil health ...

The concept for the soil health card had its origin in the seminal works on organic agriculture. Sir Albert Howard has often been considered the father of modern organic agriculture concept. His work with the British Foreign Service addressed issues that the fertilizer-pesticide model was not addressed by his re-discovery and modifications on Indore composting which were a central feature providing a technique to remediate many of the issues encountered in the soil. This method was traditional farming technique revived from India and western researchers searched and mechanize it for broad applications.  The Rodale family took Sir 

This method was traditional farming technique revived from India and western researchers searched and mechanize it for broad applications.

 The Rodale family took Sir Albert Howard model and applied science to the proving out of the organic methodology focusing on Health Soil Health Plant Health People motto. The established a 150 ha working farm with all organic methodology and a farming system trial with was randomized and replicated which compared organic methods to conventional recommendations. Robert Rodale beside establishing the long-term demonstration scientifically worked as an advocate of the concept of regeneration which means bring back life and energy to the soil. The researchers at Cornell wanted to address the major areas of soil quality which are physical, chemical and biological and the use of a multiple prong approach which was reflective but not to complex resulted in 4 properties. In reality these properties are inter related and the use of multiple aspects makes the approach more powerful the use of a limited number makes it doable. The subjective nature of many soil properties are put in a scale which makes it able to quantified or measureable. The ability to touch see smell and experience soil is still very valid but this gives a way to approach and teach in addition to measure. Rodale work started with great opposition from conventional industry and government authorites but it was espoused by President J. Carter and de funded under President Reagan. Nevertheless the Rodale family personally funded the activities and it has conclusively shown that organic systems can be completely competitive with conventional agriculture for economics, productivity and they do so with superior ability to improve the environment and reduce the energy footprint. The ability of this was related to transformation of the soil qualities was was accomplished by legume focus, diverse rotation, crop cropping and the use of compost. The mixed farming system has accumulated an additional 15 cm of rich top soil from the methodology. The improved soil organic matter has been demonstrated to greatly reduce drought damage compared to side by sonventional farming soil. 

The researchers at Cornell wanted to address the major areas of soil quality which are physical, chemical and biological and the use of a multiple prong approach which was reflective but not to complex resulted in 4 properties. In reality, these properties are interrelated and the use of multiple aspects makes the approach more powerful the use of a limited number makes it doable. The subjective nature of many soil properties is put in a scale which makes it able to quantified or measurable. The ability to touch see smell and experience soil is still very valid but this gives a way to approach and teach in addition to measuring. Rodale work started with great opposition from conventional industry and government

Rodale work started with great opposition from conventional industry and government authorities but it was espoused by President J. Carter and defunded under President Reagan. Nevertheless, the Rodale family personally funded the activities and it has conclusively shown that organic systems can be completely competitive with conventional agriculture for economics, productivity and they do so with superior ability to improve the environment and reduce the energy footprint. The ability of this was related to transformation of the soil qualities was was accomplished by legume focus, diverse rotation, crop cropping and the use of compost. The mixed farming system has accumulated an additional 15 cm of rich top soil from the methodology. The improved soil organic matter has been demonstrated to greatly reduce drought damage compared to side by sonventional farming soil. 

Robert Rodale beside establishing the long-term demonstration scientifically worked as an advocate of the concept of regeneration which means bring back life and energy to the soil. The researchers at Cornell wanted to address the major areas of soil quality which are physical, chemical and biological and the use of a multiple prong approach which was reflective but not to complex resulted in 4 properties. In reality these properties are inter related and the use of multiple aspects makes the approach more powerful the use of a limited number makes it doable. The subjective nature of many soil properties are put in a scale which makes it able to quantified or measureable. The ability to touch see smell and experience soil is still very valid but this gives a way to approach and teach in addition to measure. Rodale work started with great opposition from conventional industry and government authorites but it was espoused by President J. Carter and de funded under President Reagan. Nevertheless the Rodale family personally funded the activities and it has conclusively shown that organic systems can be completely competitive with conventional agriculture for economics, productivity and they do so with superior ability to improve the environment and reduce the energy footprint. The ability of this was related to transformation of the soil qualities was was accomplished by legume focus, diverse rotation, crop cropping and the use of compost. The mixed farming system has accumulated an additional 15 cm of rich top soil from the methodology. The improved soil organic matter has been demonstrated to greatly reduce drought damage compared to side by sonventional farming soil. 

The ability of this was related to the transformation of the soil qualities was accomplished by legume focus, diverse rotation, crop cropping and the use of compost. The mixed farming system has accumulated an additional 15 cm of rich top soil from the methodology. The improved soil organic matter has been demonstrated to greatly reduce drought damage compared to side by conventional farming soil. 

Thank you Dr. Paul for your excellent information. But the problem is the likely climate change and associated extreme climate events may degrade the land and soil resource in the years to come by way of influencing soil temperature, altered pattern of evaporation, changes in soil moisture regime, increased risk of soil erosion and salinisation, alteration in mineralisation and element cycling, changes in soil organic matter status, biomass productivity etc. Whether it would be possible to completely mitigate the ill-effects of climate change on soil quality and health.....Whether conservation tillage, crop residue retention and recycling, effective crop rotations by way of including legumes in cropping system, addition of animal based manures, adoption of water conservation practices, land cover management and mulching  have the potential to restore soil health from ill effect of climate change...

Foremost expert in carbon sequestration in agriculture is probably Dr Rattan Lal from the Ohio State University Puget and Lal from the long term no till experiment on a clay loam soil showed no till would sequester about 300 kg/ha Carbon estimated to account for 10% counteracting of the carbon emissions at the time. Our work at Rodale in Pennsylvania confirmed in California and Maryland suggest carbon sequestration through effective winter cover crops can do 3 to 4 times the no till sequestration. An application of compost once every 3 years can do 6 to 8 times and the ability to employ carbon sequestration in pasture crop systems is massive. My point is while we can reduce carbon footprint by conservation and organic agriculture the big ticket which can reverse global warming and climate change is focusing on carbon sequestration related to our global food system. Without the focus on carbon sequestration on the land this is not doable by emission reduction. The great side benefit is the carbon sequestration will mitigate the issues related to fluctuating climate in the meantime. This type of approach would take 100 years to change our whole food system but I do not a lot of other alternatives. 

Most important is to find out the ways and means to correlate soil health with productivity. What is the economic utility of soil health ? Whether any economic appraisal is available ?

Farmers in the heartland of North America recognize the value of good land which they value by paying a higher land price. The highly fertile land is less dependent on inputs and inputs can lead greater economic returns. In North America, the darkness of the soil was used before ready chemical analysis as measurement and farmers also use the tried and true method of digging holes to assess the depth of the top soil. An indication of soil health can be found in the rotation effect. If crops such as maize or soybean are grown continuously the effect of rotating as in putting maize after soybean or soybean after maize is about 10 to 20% higher yield even with high fertilizer input. In a prairie agricultural system, the earthworm population is ideal bioindicator of the soil health. Indeed it is the canary in the coal mine of an agricultural soil.  A way of approaching our greenhouse gas issues would be the system of incentives for farmers who can demonstrate soil organic matter improvements. Since soil organic matter increases the ability of the soil to capture and recycle water it improves yield potential and because it is a major reserve for available nutrients it improves crop quality. In France the term terrior which is a term of the quality of the soil is used to reflect premium wines come from specific soils such as Bordeaux. Traditionally the Vidalia onion in Georgia comes from soils low in sulfur which combine with sweet varieties to give sweet nonpugent onions which is sought after by consumers. My high chefs are fans of visiting the farms to assure the farmer reflects qualities they look for in their food. 

One of our faculty Prof. Nanthi Bolan mentioned in his recent talk that "Soil: The unrecognized treasure and Soil is our greatest heritage", so we do have to take care and protect the soil.

Hope the following links give some useful information.

Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health

(https://soilhealth.cals.cornell.edu/)

How can I assess the health of my soil?

(http://www.ccmaknowledgebase.vic.gov.au/shkb/brown_book/24_Soil_Testing.htm)

Soil Health Assessment

(https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/health/assessment/) 

HOME GARDEN SOIL HEALTH ASSESSMENT

(https://permaculturenews.org/2015/04/07/home-garden-soil-health-assessment/)

Tools and systems for assessing soil health

(http://vro.agriculture.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vrosite.nsf/pages/soil_health_tools_1)

Cornell Soil Health Test How can it help you?

(http://www.cedarbasin.com/9702-cornell-soil-health-test.html)

Global Soil Health

(http://www.fao.org/soils-portal/soil-degradation-restoration/global-soil-health-indicators-and-assessment/global-soil-health/en/)

Excellent stuff Jetty, appreciate your efforts.

there are several approaches for quantifying soil health or SQI s are available, they include minimum attributes pertaining to physical, chemical and biological aspects. Soil health index has been employed for irrigation, nutrients and tillage management. The effect of intensive agriculture, RCTs have been related to soil health  through these indices on short and long term basis. But there is no operational DSS for soil health assessment and management options for sustenance, although several excellent papers on these aspects have been published. More so, it becomes difficult for countries like India with intensive diverse agriculture. Sayfor example cornell soil health index is very effective, but tested / operated on limited scales.

regards 

Lots of interesting responses - as a soil ecologist I started to work on this in the 1960s! - and eventually realised that just as in above ground systems, the best indicators of the heath of the system is revealed by the types, numbers and activities of the top predators in soil - especially the predatory (mostly Mesostigmatid) mites, which are at the top of the fungal decomposer food chains - one of my papers on this is Hill, SB 1985. SOIL FAUNA AND AGRICULTURE: PAST FINDINGS & FUTURE PRIORITIES. Quaestiones Entomologicae. 21: 637-644 (attached) - I also constructed a diagram that shows the main relationships between soil fauna and microbial decomposers - and another paper on the effects of forestry practices on soil mesofauna - all physical, chemical and microbial measures, while important to take into account, have both reliability limitations and do not tell us about what is actually going on in soil - whereas soil predators are able to tell us this! - As Paul Hepperly mentioned, Sir Albert Howard, and many other 'giants' of the organic and ecological agriculture movements, had/have an intuitive and experiential understanding of the importance of soil health - Supportively, Stuart: [email protected] 

Article SOIL FAUNA AND AGRICULTURE: PAST FINDINGS & FUTURE PRIORITIES

Good piece of information Stuart..Very often , soil microbial load fail to explicitly express the variation in soil fertility vis-a-vis crop response..?

Another good indicator of soil health is the root of plants growing on it. How deep can the root go through the soil profile? Is the root suberified, or does it have root hair? The stabilization of SOM operated by soil biota enhances further root exploration in the soil profile and water absorption. Profs Franco Zucconi and Davide Neri (University of Ancona, Italy) published in 1996 a wonderful book titled: Declino del suolo e stanchezza del terreno (Soil decline and tiredness). Their work focused on the relationship roots-soil in the orchard. Obviously, the cultivation of annual plants poses different challenges that those occurring when growing perennials. In any case, evaluating roots "happiness" substantiates the vigor of a healthy soil and there is now a robust body of literature to support this.

An interesting response Bruno. ...

I agree with the answers given by Dr Anoop Kumar Srivastava

NICE CONVERSATION

Hi Jayanta, Here attached is copy of a paper that will show you how to assess soil and crops health directly, in the field.

I agree with the answers given by Dr Anoop Kumar Srivastava

Thanks Hitesh...

Very often , we test soil health on field , simply taking few grams of soil in a test tube and adding some water , amount of frothing that you observe, is a function of dehydrogenase activity of the soil, a very practical way of gauging soil health....

physiochemical properties

SOIL compaction is greatly under appreciated

Bulk density in relation to dil profiles is often lacking