The Importance of Soil Health

While bountiful harvests make any farmer proud, growing them consistently is an even bigger win. As most seasoned farmers can attest, reliable yields start with healthy soil. In fact, the importance of soil is hard to overstate, since it sustains every plant, and in turn every animal, on our planet.  Farmers and agronomists are constantly reevaluating the best approaches to maintaining healthy soil. Whether they use practices that have been implemented for hundreds of years or adopt innovative new approaches, more farmers are being incentivized to adopt soil-sustaining strategies. These practices aim to boost soil organic matter and contribute to soil life. Such strategies are even being legally mandated in some parts of the world. 

Whether cultivating a small plot of rice in Asia or thousands of acres of corn in North America, every farmer must tend to the soil in addition to the crops that grow in it. The soil requires three types of attention: structural, chemical, and biological. Supporting these three components of health is a balancing act that’s constantly evolving, depending on crops, location, scale, and available tools and technology.

Growing with the soil in mind

Ohio soy and corn farmer, David Brandt, educates the public on the subject throughout the American Midwest. In 1969, Brandt stopped tilling a portion of his land.  By doing so, he wanted to support its structural health by creating better drainage and maintaining its colonies of beneficial microbes and worms. At the time, this no-till approach was unfamiliar to many, Brandt says. “Some people looked at us like we were crazy!” But it worked so well, Brandt adds, that “by 1971 we were 100 percent no-till.” In the following years, Brandt also adopted the use of cover crops and reduced his use of soil additives, all to the benefit of his crops—and his bottom line. 

Across the Atlantic, many farmers at the time had already implemented several of the soil-health practices that Brandt advocates for. Gerard Korthals of the Netherlands Institute for Ecology studies soil health and echoes Brandt’s teachings. He stresses that, “without good soil health, we cannot live as humans, since all ecosystem actions—food production, oxygen production, purification of water—depend on a good soil/food web.” This interconnected web is protected by law in the Netherlands.

In the United States, farmers are increasingly adopting practices that promote healthy soil. That’s reflected in the numbers reported by the American Farm Bureau. Since 2012, no-till acreage has increased by eight million acres, while conventional till acreage has decreased by 26 million acres in the United States. On a global scale, there were about 507 million no-till farm acres as of 2021, an increase of 93 percent over the previous decade. This acreage makes up 14.7 percent of the worldwide total farmland. As of 2018–2019, 74 percent of Australia and New Zealand’s farmland was managed with conservation agriculture practices (the term used for no-till outside the United States).

Pragmatists like Brandt see cover crops as another ingredient in good soil health. “You’ll increase your yield by using a cover crop because it pulls up nutrients below the compacted layer of your soil.” If farmers balk at growing something they won’t ultimately sell, Brandt reminds them that, while the use of cover crops varies widely depending on a variety of factors, it can lead to more bountiful and higher-quality results, which may compensate for lost revenue. After all, organic matter in the soil contributes to healthy soil.

Of course, the health of any farm’s soil is also linked to the health of its surrounding environment. Brandt points out that his practices also help keep the surrounding rural areas in better health, too. By improving soil drainage and planting cover crops, he conserves precious water and reduces runoff that can damage local waterways, as “healthy soil with rooted crops holds on to more moisture and more nutrients.” This also reduces the cost of fertilizer, as it can be applied less frequently. 

Helping farmers help the soil

Farming has come a long way since Brandt’s early days. For one thing, healthy nitrogen levels are easier to maintain due to nitrogen stabilizers and nitrogen efficiency optimizers. Still, while no-till is not an option for every acre of crops, only 21 percent of American farmland is currently continuously no-till. Any large-scale change comes with some uncomfortable adjustments, and this is no exception. When farmers stop tilling the land, for example, they’re no longer able to mechanically eradicate weeds. There’s also the added labor of selecting and carefully managing cover crops. And of course, change takes time. If a farm has been consistently tilled for decades, it will take many years for the soil to regenerate.

To encourage farmers to take no-till and cover cropping on, the USDA is offering resources like specific guidance for the introduction of cover crops. They have also produced data that reveal fuel savings from taking a no-till approach. The use of cover crops is being incentivized through insurance premium benefits and the distribution of free seed through some local farm bureaus.

The Australian government is also incentivizing farmers to get involved in sustaining soil health. Farmers can apply for up to AU$10,000 in funding to test their soil and share their findings with the government, which is building a soil health database. This work is part of the country’s National Soil Strategy, launched in 2021 to help manage and improve the soil for the next 20 years.

In the same year, the multinational Living Soils of the Americas program was launched by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture. This ambitious program seeks to improve soil health and carbon sequestration through sustainable agricultural practices. The initiative includes several nations across the Americas, from Canada to Colombia, and links scientific, public, private, and government entities to achieve its goals. With programs like these, more farmers will begin to adopt these practices.

As farmers and governments are increasingly committed to soil health preservation, demand for new practices and tools will also grow. In the future, Gerard Korthals’ research may yield just such practices and tools. In a recent study, he found that damage to crops from some nematodes and fungi could be reduced through the use of biological soil additives like chitin (from shrimp exoskeletons) and marigold, which Korthals found to be useful in boosting the soil’s beneficial biota—in other words, they help to keep the soil alive and thriving.

With a diverse set of soil-focused farming practices, financial incentives, and information resources at their fingertips, farmers are better equipped than ever to make sure their soil thrives. This creates a positive ripple effect across the food chain. That’s good news for hardworking farmers and hungry consumers alike.