Cropping systems tests in bid to improve soil quality

Cropping systems which improve the soil, potentially cutting production costs while also increasing yields and quality, are being tested on 16 study sites across Europe by a team based at Wageningen Environmental Research in the Netherlands.

Led by Dr Rudi Hessel, they have identified a range of cropping systems that they believe could be capable of both improving agricultural soil quality and boosting farming profits.

Working as part of an EU-funded SoilCare project, their SoilImproving Cropping Systems (SICSs) apply equally to all farm sizes, from small organics to large industrial, with the promise that they might enable farmers in the future to ‘drastically reduce’ usage of agrochemical inputs, such as fertilisers and herbicides.

The SICS range includes making better use of crop rotation; cover crops; tillage techniques; organic amendments such as humic acid and green manure; mulches and organic techniques.

News of the team’s testing programme was released to coincide with the Food and Agriculture Organization’s World Soil Day, an event held to highlight the deteriorating health of Europe’s agricultural soils.

At a European level, for example, soil erosion affects over 12 million hectares of land, accounting for about 7.2% of the total agricultural land and leading to more than £1 billion of lost cropping productivity each year.

“With the SICS tests under way (including on one site in the UK) we are looking forward to learning about their advantages and drawbacks,” said Dr Hessel.