Ensuring soil fertility is a matter of balance, where structure, chemistry and biological life are intertwined in an equation whose components depend on one another.
But how can you tell whether your soil is balanced to achieve profitable crops?
Through soil analysis, of course!
The right balance
Through farming practices such as crop rotation, liming, fertilisation, organic manuring and tillage, farmers must enable their soil to achieve a proper balance between three levels of soil fertility:
- Structural fertility, which ensures the viability of the farming system, crop rooting capacity and resistance to erosion,
- Chemical fertility, which defines, at a given point in time, the soil’s ability to supply nutrients to crops,
- Biological fertility, which maintains soil structure and enables the transfer of unavailable elements into the available pool, thereby ensuring system sustainability.
The sustainability of the farming system and the profitability of crops depend on this balance.
How to link soil fertility to field practices?
There is no single, direct link between a farming practice and a specific level of soil fertility.
Soil analyses provide valuable information to help choose one practice over another and to assess their relevance.
- Particle size distribution (soil texture): this refers to the proportion of sand, silt and clay. It provides guidance on optimal tillage practices, organic matter inputs (types and timing) and the splitting of fertiliser applications.
- Levels of plant-available nutrients: this refers to the concentrations of plant-available P, K, Ca, Mg and S. These values help determine the quantities of nutrients to be applied at the time of analysis. However, they do not provide any information on nutrient dynamics, particularly the soil microflora’s capacity to mineralise nutrients and replenish available reserves.
- Organic matter (OM) and its fractions: these are the levels of total organic matter:
- Labile OM feeds soil microflora,
- Stable OM is a precursor of humus, as are the C/N ratios of the different fractions.
This information helps guide the management of crop residues, cover crops and effluents. It also makes it possible to anticipate microbial mineralisation and nutritional stress.
- Microbial biomass and activity: this refers to the amount of microorganisms in the soil and their mineralisation capacity. It helps guide the timing of field operations, crop rotation choices and the levels of organic matter returned to the soil.
Final thoughts
To manage soils and crops effectively, soil analyses are therefore highly relevant tools for managing all three levels of soil fertility.
It is advisable to use the full set of analyses outlined above rather than relying on a single one.
Ensuring soil fertility is a matter of balance, where structure, chemistry and biological life are intertwined in an equation whose components depend on one another. But how can you tell whether your soil is balanced to achieve profitable crops? Through soil analysis, of course! CONTENTS The right balance How to link soil fertility to field […]
...Ensuring soil fertility is a matter of balance, where structure, chemistry and biological life are intertwined in an equation whose components depend on one another. But how can you tell whether your soil is balanced to achieve profitable crops? Through soil analysis, of course! CONTENTS The right balance How to link soil fertility to field […]
...Ensuring soil fertility is a matter of balance, where structure, chemistry and biological life are intertwined in an equation whose components depend on one another. But how can you tell whether your soil is balanced to achieve profitable crops? Through soil analysis, of course! CONTENTS The right balance How to link soil fertility to field […]
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