SOIL HEALTH
SOIL HEALTH
Soil is one of the most fundamental and precious resources on the planet and the organisms which live in soil are essential to our well being. (http://www.fao.org/soils-portal/soil-biodiversity/en/)
Soil
Soil is not dirt. Instead, soil is a living, dynamic ecosystem that nurtures healthy plants.
Soil is responsible for four vital functions:
- Sustaining plant and animal life below and above the surface
- Regulation water and fertilizer/pesticide runoff
- Filtering, buffering, degrading, immobilizing and detoxifying
(Mississippi State University Extension)
What is Soil Made From?
When you break down soil, it consists of three key components: mineral particles, organic matter and living things.
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Soil Health :
Soil health is the continued capacity of a soil to function as a vital, living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. Soil is not an inert growing medium, but rather is the home of billions of bacteria, fungi, and other organisms that together create an intricate symbiotic ecosystem.
Key Soil Health Management Principles.
These principles are represented in the circular diagram to the left to emphasize their relationship as a continuum where each complements the others and also depends on the others.
- Minimize disturbance
- Maximize soil cover
- Maximize biodiversity
- Maximize presence of living roots
This ecosystem can be managed to support plants and animals, by cycling nutrients, absorbing, draining and retaining rainwater and snowmelt for use during dry periods, filtering and buffering water to remove potential pollutants, and providing habitat for the soil biological population to flourish and diversify to keep the ecosystem functioning well.
Mr. Abdullah Keerio SO/Head Plant Physiology/Chemistry Section on securing 2nd Position in National Digital Poster Competition organized by Department of Soil and Environment Sciences MNS-Agriculture University Multan on the occasion of “World Soil Day, 2020” . The title of Poster was Soil Health
