How to Improve Soil Quality

Published:

January 20, 2025

Key Takeaways

The factors affecting soil health and quality include both natural and human influences. These include soil erosion, nutrient depletion, desertification, acidification, etc.
Some practices common in industrial farming can be harmful to the soil in the long run, such as excessive tilling, monocropping, and increased reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Crop rotation, the use of organic fertilizers, and planting cover crops are some of the steps that can protect the soil or reduce its disruption.
Soil monitoring systems like cameras and sensors can help maintain soil quality and timely respond to threats.

Numerous challenges face global farms in the 21st century — and few are more worrisome than soil degradation. Simply put, soil productivity is going down around the world, due to a wide variety of factors. According to the UN, at least 1/3 of the soil on Earth is moderately to severely degraded, significantly impacting its ability to support the crops our growing human population needs.

So far, the problem is getting worse, not better. It’s important to start taking soil health seriously and look for ways to safely and sustainably improve poor soil so it can continue to be productive in decades to come.

In this article, we'll be looking at the causes of poor soil productivity and healthy ways of enriching the soil in future seasons.

Challenges to Soil Quality

If you're serious about getting your blueberries off to a good start, step one is to select the right soil and test it to ensure the conditions are right. Do this around six months before planting, so you have time to adjust the soil.

Erosion and Desertification

In many areas, the nutrient-rich and biologically active topsoil is being stripped away, leaving much less healthy soil behind. This is partly from human activity, such as deforestation, and partly a byproduct of climate change shifting weather patterns. In worst-case scenarios, formerly productive soil can become desert or scrubland, nearly unreclaimable without heroic restoration efforts.

Compaction

Compaction is another issue, typically caused by the overuse of heavy machinery and tilling methods that are overly disruptive to the soil. Overgrazing by livestock also contributes to compaction over time, as the livestock stomp the soil down. If the soil becomes compacted, it's much more difficult for plants to properly send out their roots, and the compaction will also significantly harm necessary biological action within the soil.

Nutrient Depletion

Far too many farmers engage in monocropping methods, raising the same crops season after season without a break or rotating the crops. This quickly depletes vital nutrients, and then requires overuse of chemical fertilizers which can easily do more damage to the soil over time. For many farmers, rotating crops and encouraging natural nutrient replenishment is one of the best ways to revitalize soil and keep it healthy.

Contamination

Pollution is a major issue as well, with the soil becoming contaminated with a wide range of toxic industrial chemicals, tainted water, overused pesticides, heavy metals buildup, and more. These all heavily damage the soil, killing the microbiome within it, while potentially rendering it unfit to raise safe food.

Acidification

Different crops require different pH levels, but in general, the acidity of soil will tend to increase over time. Few crops thrive in soil with low pH, although there are exceptions, like blueberries. In general, low pH causes low yields, or even crop failure. Acidification is a particular problem for farms overusing artificial nitrogen fertilizers, which encourage acid formation. Raising the pH levels of the soil is necessary to keep your farm productive.

Industrial-Scale Farming

There's probably no human activity doing more damage to the soil currently than industrial farming because it often combines all the issues mentioned above: monocropping, overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, heavy compaction, deforestation, and more. It’s crucial for huge industrial farms to prioritize more sustainable methods to decrease the risk of causing damage to the Earth's surface.

Natural and Sustainable Options for Improving Soil Quality

Organic Additions

In many cases, the biggest threat to soil health is a lack of proper organic materials and bio-activity within the soil — again, often due to overuse of chemicals, compaction, etc. So, often, the best way to enrich the soil is to add back the organic material it lacks. 

Manure and compost are obvious choices (assuming they're compatible with your crops), as well as degraded straw, wood chips, and other materials that encourage bioactivity. It's also possible to buy humus, the bioactive topsoil, and spread it directly onto the land if there's no better option to improve soil fertility.

Crop Rotation

Monocropping kills the soil, and sustainable farming practices call for proper rotation of crops, with smart choices so that the crops support each other. 

For example, many popular crops such as grains, tend to be hungry for nitrogen. And overuse of nitrogen fertilizers is a major issue. On the other hand, most legumes such as peanuts or soybeans can take nitrogen directly from the atmosphere and actually replenish its levels in the soil. So, rotating between legumes and grains can significantly reduce the need for additional fertilizer.

Cover Crops

Cover crops refer to crops that are planted specifically to help support and protect the soil. For example, a farmer might plant grasses, buckwheat, or mustards prior to the winter, allowing them to thrive and then die so that their nutrients return to the soil and create natural mulch. Other cover crops may be chosen to provide literal cover, shielding the soil from heavy rains, winds, or other environmental threats. This can help combat erosion and desertification.

Low-Till or No-Till Planting

Tilling the soil isn't always necessary. It can encourage erosion by breaking up the soil too much, as well as disrupting or destroying the ecosystem within the topsoil. Most crops can be planted with minimal tilling, or even no tilling at all.

Deploying Biochar

Biochar is a charcoal-like substance created by heating biomass — typically byproducts of farming — through a pyrolysis process. The biomass is degraded by heat, but kept in a low-oxygen environment that prevents flames from forming. The result is a mass of highly concentrated natural fertilizer, which can quickly boost soil productivity without the drawbacks of synthetic fertilizers.

Biochar is also a byproduct of biogas production, which helps improve its availability on the market.

Agroforestry

Loss of trees and tree cover near farms is one major contributing factor to erosion, nutrient loss, and desertification. Agroforestry seeks to combat this by encouraging the integration of farmed crops and trees or other woody plants.

While an agroforestry plan takes years to accomplish, the long-term benefits can be huge. The trees will shield crops, encourage natural biomes, help circulate water and nutrients, and more.

Integrating Animals

Too much livestock on land, overgrazing, can harm the soil — but properly managed, having animals sharing space on your farm can be helpful to the soil. They naturally produce fertilizer, and can also deter pests.

Nor do the animals have to be farmed; they can simply be invited. For example, a few owl houses around your farm could encourage rodent predators to stay nearby protecting your crops from vermin, because that's simply what they do. Look for ways to bring beneficial animals onto your farm who can help out.

Technological Options

While most regenerative farming methods for boosting soil health are focused on natural, organic options, there are ways to safely deploy modern science as well. A mix of old and new farming methods can often produce the best results!

Precise Soil Monitoring

Soil monitors have come a long way, helping you measure soil moisture, pH levels, and more, and maintain the needed levels according to the soil type and needs. Computerized or AI-enhanced systems can now automatically monitor the soil, registering critical data day by day, and tracking the progress. It can also send alerts if key soil metrics become a problem, allowing you to stay on top of your soil's health.

Data Collection

In general, modern data-collection and collation systems are a true boon to farming. Tech-savvy farms can keep tabs on conditions across their fields at all times: soil health, irrigation rates, crop sizes, health, and yields, yearly rainfall, and much more.

As a result, farming can become a much more precise science. You're no longer having to guesstimate conditions or rely on hazy memories of past seasons. Everything is logged and recorded, and the software is ready to compile historical reports whenever you need them.

GIS Mapping

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are specialized software systems capable of combining geo-located data with maps, to put the information in a more easily-understood form. GIS systems could map out:

Crop coverage
Soil health
Erosion of topsoil availability
Irrigation systems
Pest outbreaks, and more

Combining the data into maps makes it very easy for farmers to get a full overview of their lands, even if it would be impossible to directly oversee the farmland through direct observation.

Video Observation

Speaking of, cameras are also a major new boon for farmers looking to protect their soil and crops. Rugged weatherproof cameras can record on-the-ground conditions 24/7, allowing you to always keep an eye on the crops. 

Smarter systems can even identify problems when they begin. An agri-camera supplemented with AI-powered software, for example, could visually identify diseased plants before they're noticed by human workers, and alert you immediately. In addition, this data is compiled and can be reported on or integrated into GIS maps for even more insights into your crop health.

When you have questions, we'll help you find the answers you need to take control of your fields and the harvest you care about. Contact Cropler to discover more about our products and the ways we help you proactively protect your operations from the effects of crop diseases. Learn More

Cropler Makes High-Tech Farming Affordable

Cropler wants to make new advances in farm tech available to farms of all sizes! Our crop monitoring and reporting systems allow you to visually oversee your farm while having full recordings or snapshots available for analysis. Combined with data collection systems that accumulate data every year, and you can quickly build a database that brings you deep insights into the health and productivity of your farm.

To learn more about how Cropler can help you reduce costs and boost yields, just contact us.

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