Conservation farming and biodiversity boost soil health and sustainability

A recent academic event focused on research into the links between soil biodiversity, soil health and sustainable agriculture

- Glenneis Kriel

Researchers at the XIX International Colloquium on Soil Zoology, held recently in Cape Town, highlighted the impact of agricultural production practices on soil diversity.

Guénola Pérès, an assistant professor at the Institut Agro Rennes-Angers in France, said many studies had analysed the impact of reduced mechanical soil disturbance, cover crops, crop rotation and organic matter management, but most of these focused on the impact on isolated soil properties, such as soil chemistry, biology and physiology.

The SoilMan project in Europe, co-constructed by researchers and farmers, aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how various soil properties interact and influence soil quality, health and sustainability.

One of the project's studies, on 12 fields managed by farmers in Britany, France, compared the impact of a wheat and maize rotation system, ploughed 25cm deep with a mouldboard, to a conservation farming system in which maize and canola were rotated with two grain crops, using direct seeding.

Mineral fertiliser was used in the first treatment, and mineral and organic fertiliser in the second.

No significant difference was found between wheat yields, but the study revealed that the conservation farming practices had a positive impact on earthworm abundance, biomass and diversity, as well as anecic earthworm abundance.