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Soil and Water: Striking the Right Balance

February 21, 2010

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Water and soil go hand in hand when it comes to agriculture and crop production. Find out why.

By Cole Waggoner, Produce More, Conserve More staff

Close up of irrigation lines on farmland.

Some of the most basic elements required for the growth of crops include soil, water, oxygen and sunlight. However, there is a delicate balance to be found between these elements – in particular, between water and soil.

While water is fundamental to the soil’s ability to produce crops, excessive rain or water can be a destructive force soil erosion by water, accelerating soil erosion and depleting the soil’s essential nutrients. On the other hand, introducing too much soil to a water system can negatively impact water quality and water ecosystems, as agricultural soil runoff can contain agrochemicals that are harmful to aquatic environments.

Agricultural techniques – including conservation tillage, the use of organic matter, the planting of cover crops and the limiting of compaction – can help ensure the vital balance between water and soil is maintained.

The use of conservation tillage prevents soil runoff into rivers and other bodies of water and also helps maintain an optimal level of water for a given field’s soil by improving water infiltration) – the rate at which water is absorbed by soil surface. A study by the Conservation Technology Information Center estimated that conservation tillage and the Conservation Reserve Program “have reduced soil erosion by 1 billion tons per year … a 30 percent reduction since the early 1980s when traditional plowing methods were more common.” Another report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the University of Georgia found that conservation tillage increases water infiltration by as much as 30 to 45 percent.

According to the USDA, soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients can also be enhanced by the addition of organic matter. In addition, planting cover crops helps trap surface water and prevent physical erosion of the soil, among other benefits. Lastly, limiting compaction – where the soil is compressed by heavy traffic – is crucial for ensuring that the water in soil is available to nourish plant roots and other organisms that contribute to the soil’s health.

While these practices are effective in managing the balance between soil and water, the field of biotechnology is going even farther by changing the extent to which agricultural production is dependent on water.

Many are hopeful that advancements in biotechnology – such as the research and development of drought-tolerant crops – will allow farmers to produce crops that use water in a more efficient fashion, which can potentially help increase yields and prevent crop loss. For example, a project in Africa, Water Efficient Maize for Africa, is seeking to develop these drought-tolerant seeds to improve food security and provide economic stability for farmers. According to a press release about the initiative from the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), those seeds could increase crop yields “by 20 to 35 percent under moderate drought, compared to current varieties. This increase would translate into about two million additional tons of food during drought years in the participating countries, meaning 14 to 21 million people would have more to eat and sell.”

Farmers today can take advantage of a wide range of practices that help maintain the optimal balance between soil and water for their crops. In addition, scientific advances in the field of biotechnology are re-writing the future of the relationship between soil and water, helping countries faced with drought and other hurdles to food production by providing technologies that allow for consistent and sustainable food production.

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