Soil is an important resource that sustains animal, plant, and microbial life on earth. Moreover, is currently suffering from degradation on a big scale which is threatening biodiversity, global food production, and climate. Soil degradation is mainly caused by pressures including climate change and unsustainable land use. Therefore, a change in farming practices is imperative to protect soil integrity and avoid further environmental catastrophes, sustainable solutions like plant-based biostimulants can be the answer to that problem.
What are the consequences of unhealthy soils?
- Soil degradation: Soil’s physical chemical and biological properties are lost and the support capacity for animals and plants decreases. Erosion is part of soil degradation and occurs when nutrients are lost naturally (climatic erosion) or due to poor land management such as deforestation, intensive cultivation, forest fires, and overgrazing.
- Loss of animal, vegetal and microbial biodiversity. Soil biodiversity contributes to the cycling of major nutrients such as nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorous. Soil biodiversity is also involved in pollutant detoxification and the regulation of soil/borne diseases of plants and animals. Therefore, soil biodiversity is integral to crop fertility.
- Soil health is crucial to sustain agriculture and therefore ensure food security in the future. The increasing population rises the demand for food production, which makes it critical to enhancing soil health.
- Increased carbon emissions to the atmosphere: Soil constitutes an important carbon sink, which stores and releases carbon and regulates the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere. Loss of soil carbon is important as it contributes to an increase in greenhouse gas releases which affect climate change
What are the consequences of unhealthy soils?
A healthy soil is one that combines a set of characteristics that contribute to life on earth:
- More organic matter and nutrient cycling in the soil
- Rich biological diversity
- Enhanced soil physical-chemical structure
- Increased water retention capacity, which regulates water flows and controls floods and droughts
- Improved carbon sequestration which reduces the emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
- Increased crop productivity, as soils provide nutrients and water for plant growth
Mitigation strategies
It is urgent to tackle soil degradation and reverse its effects on agrifood systems. In fact, there are several sustainable soil health practices that we recognize as soil health boosters. These include minimizing disturbance by avoiding land tillering and especially promoting cover cropping as much as possible. These avoid soil erosion by wind or other environmental factors. Certainly, it is also important to ensure the permanent growth of roots in the soil to feed the soil and increase animal, plant, and microbial diversity.
As a result, the soil increases its organic matter content and improves its microbial activity, equally carbon sequestration happens in the soil, also soil structure improves, and water-holding capacity increases. In turn, farmers can obtain better crop yields as well as reduce negative environmental impact.
Soil health solutions from Ajinomoto Agrosolutions
One of the strategies by which to increase soil health is to promote soil microbial biodiversity. Balanced soil microbial populations are critical to soil health, ensure proper nutrient and water availability, and increase plant health.
Ajinomoto Agrosolutions organic solutions can help increase soil health and fertility with an exclusive raw material with prebiotic properties. Prebiotics are organic compounds that stimulate and elicit microorganisms that live in the soil, favoring the growth of beneficial microorganisms. The exclusive prebiotic raw material contains an extensive number of bioactive molecules of vegetal origin.
The product has many advantages:
- The application of the raw material boosts the activity of important enzymes such as catalase and urease, important enzymes produced by soil microorganisms that serve as indicators of soil quality and fertility.
- It helps control soil salinity and reduces the presence of blocking compounds such as nitrates and chlorides.
- It boosts soil health, making them more productive and resilient.
Our product will help increase soil health and grow high-quality crops in a sustainable way by enhancing the proliferation of soil beneficial microorganisms.
Contact us to get to know more about our exclusive biostimulants.