How does illiteracy of farmers influence the poor quality of soil? What could be done to support these farmers?
Answers
Answer:
In soil-based agriculture, soil health is the most important foundation of a healthy farm ecosystem. Yet most of the common farming techniques employed in industrial crop production, such as synthetic fertilizer application and monocropping, can degrade soil over time, causing a cascade of problems necessitating the use of even more man-made inputs, which in turn contribute to climate change. Sustainable and regenerative agriculture seeks to ameliorate soil health, sequestering carbon, storing water and building healthier farm ecosystems along the way.
What Is Soil?
Soil forms the surface of the Earth. It is made up of various mixtures (depending on where one lives) of minerals, water, air and organic material (including microbes and other organisms). 1
Soil is not static: its composition is changeable, based on the weather, which organisms constitute it, which plants grow in it, and more. 2 Soil, like air and water, is also vulnerable to pollution and can be damaged by industrial farming practices. Soil can also be amended through sustainable practices, like applying compost.
Soils are often thought of as “living” because so many different types of organisms are alive in them, from bacteria to fungi to earthworms. In fact, one teaspoon of healthy soil can contain as many as one billion bacteria, plus fungi, protozoa and nematodes. 3 Healthy organisms in soil — both large (e.g., earthworms) and small (e.g., bacteria) — are important, because they perform many functions, from aeration, to creating pockets in the soil for water, to breaking down organic material and making nutrients available for plants. 4
While soil is technically a renewable resource, it can take (pending the climate) between 100 and 1,000 years to develop — and this formation is so slow, that scientists apply the term “limited” to it, because although it is a natural resource, it is vulnerable to degradation. 5
The Impact of Industrial Agriculture on Soil Health
Industrial agriculture negatively affects soil health and the atmosphere, by reducing organic matter and releasing carbon.
The Effect of Monocropping on Soil Health
Monocropping is the practice of growing the same crop on the same plot of land, year after year. This practice depletes the soil of nutrients (making the soil less productive over time), reduces organic matter in soil and can cause significant erosion. 6 In the US, industrial farming practices often include the rotation of soybeans and corn. Technically, because two crops are in rotation, this does not get classified as a “monoculture.” However, this “simple” form of crop rotation does not provide the same benefit to the soil as do complex systems (in which three or more crops are rotated over a period of one year or longer). 7 When crops are grown in complex rotation, yields go up by as much as 10 percent in a non-drought year. 8