Soil Health and Management and the USDA-NRCS Initiative.

With world population projection to exceed 9 billion by 2040, reducing amounts of farmable land, conflicting demands for agriculture commodities and increased environmental pressure on agriculture, farmers are looking for a more sustainable way to farm. In the fall of 2012 NRCS embarked on a Soil Health Campaign that is foundational in that by improving soil health many of the other national resource concerns will also be improved and transformational in that by adopting soil health management principles can help America’s farmers truly achieve a higher level of productivity, profitability and sustainability.

NRCS has defined soil health as the continued capacity for soil to function as a vital living ecosystem to sustain plant, animal and humans. Producer who follow the four basic soil health planning principles have been able to achieve great improvements in soil health and benefit from increased soil function that are necessary for food and fiber production, e.g. nutrient cycling, water regulation, and biodiversity. 

This presentation will focus on the four soil health planning principles: minimizing soil disturbance, using plant diversity to increase diversity in the soil biota, keeping a living cover year round and maintaining cover year round.