The Importance of Soil Health

Soil is not an inert growing medium – it is a living and life-giving natural resource. It is teeming with billions of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that are the foundation of an elegant symbiotic ecosystem.

Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. Healthy soil gives us clean air and water, bountiful crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes. Soil does all this by performing five essential functions:

Regulating water: Soil helps control where rain, snowmelt, and irrigation water go. Water flows over the land or into and through the soil.

Sustaining plant and animal life: The diversity and productivity of living things depend on soil.

Filtering and buffering potential pollutants: The minerals and microbes in the soil are responsible for filtering, buffering, degrading, immobilizing, and detoxifying organic and inorganic materials, including industrial and municipal by-products and atmospheric deposits.

Cycling nutrients: Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other nutrients are stored, transformed, and cycled in the soil.

Providing physical stability and support: Soil structure provides a medium for plant roots. Soils also provide support for human structures and protection for archeological treasures.

Soil health research has determined how to manage soil in a way that improves soil function.

As world population and food production demands rise, keeping our soil healthy and productive is of paramount importance. By farming using soil health principles and systems that include no-till, cover cropping, and diverse rotations, more and more farmers are increasing their soil’s organic matter and improving microbial activity. As a result, farmers are sequestering more carbon, increasing water infiltration, and improving wildlife and pollinator habitats—all while harvesting better profits and often better yields.

Read More: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/national/soils/health