The progressive degradation of useful soils for agriculture and farm animal husbandry is a growing environmental and social problem, given that it endangers the food safety of an increasing world population. This fact prompted the Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development – Neiker-Tecnalia – to design a series of research projects to evaluate alternative agricultural practices in terms of their capacity to combine the productivity of crops with the health of the soil.

Conclusions of great interest to the agricultural and animal husbandry sector were drawn from the studies. Neiker-Tecnalia was able to show that, on extensive mountain pastures, lime sand and wood ash are a viable alternative to quicklime as a liming material. In moderate doses, both products slightly correct the acidity of soils and, at the same time, produce a balanced increase in their short-term biological activity, as well as an increase in the productivity and the nutritive value of the pasture. Also, no significant changes were observed in the floral composition of the pastures one year after the application of these liming materials. When attention was turned to intensive crop rotation in more lowland pastures, it was observed that the use of cattle slurry as organic fertiliser, the use of the non-tillage (direct sowing) technique and the incorporation of legumes as winter crops enable the reduction of production costs, compared to mineral fertiliser, conventional tillage and a single grass crop and as a consequence, the economic yield of the farms is enhanced. Moreover, the application of fresh cattle slurry, especially in combination with non tillage, favours the activity and the functional diversity of edaphic microbial communities, as well as the abundance of earthworms.
Nevertheless, non tillage may give rise to the problem of compacting in fine-textured soils, from the second year of intensive rotation. Neiker-Tecnalia also carried out trials with microcosm-scale fodder species and which showed that the application of the glyphosate herbicide in doses normally employed in agriculture may affect the non-targeted edaphic organisms and, in particular, the functional diversity of rhizospheric microbial communities.
From this research, it was concluded that the biomass, the mineralizable nitrogen, the activity and functional diversity of the edaphic microbial communities, as well as the abundance of earthworms, have a fast and high sensitivity response to the changes that agricultural practices produce in the soil. This is why they are such effective tools when evaluating alternative agricultural practices when in transition to an agriculture that better respects the environment and that combines crop productivity with the protection of soil health and quality in the long-term.

Adapted from materials provided by Basque Research.

MLA Basque Research (2009, July 24). Alternative Agricultural Practices Combine
Productivity And Soil Health.

Soil agriculture, Soil