Soil conservation: importance, techniques and practices

The soil conservation Includes all those techniques and practices focused on the use and sustainable maintenance of soils which are used as a natural resource, both in agriculture and in forestry and livestock.

Because it is currently a Non -renewable resource and that the Soil loss It constitutes one of the main environmental problems worldwide, soil conservation is considered vital to ensure that the various ecological, climatological, hydrological, social, economic and cultural factors interact with each other, using soils sustainable. It may also be interested in deepening the soils with the reading of this other ecology article about the different types of soils and their main characteristics.

In the next section we can know in more detail why soil conservation is so important, within the global conservation of nature.

Promote the Sustainable soil use It has emerged in response to the multiple and various problems that the quality and number of soils suitable for the cultivation of food and trees from around the world have faced.

Several studies have estimated that nature alone can take about 200 years to produce 1 cm of fertile soil, so it is really important to protect them and take care of them to guarantee their conservation, since otherwise, they are able to impoverish themselves easily and in a very short time.

Among the main problems that soil are suffering stand out:

• Soil erosion, as well as compaction, increased salinity and soil acidity.
• Inadequate management of cultivation lands, creating an imbalance within the productive system, which is directly related to the shortage of food that we could suffer in a not too distant future.
• The population of the world (about 8,000 million inhabitants), forces humanity to have at least one billion hectares of agricultural land to guarantee their nutritional needs. This fact implies the constant pressure on the productive potential of soils, as well as natural resources in general.

Therefore, at present, numerous sectors work to renew and condition the productive techniques related to the soil preservationtrying that the practices adopted by farmers, silvicularisters and ranchers are as appropriate as possible and always oriented to the conservation of this limited resource, which can never be wasted. Learn more in this other post about the importance of soils and also know the importance of conservation of natural resources in general in this other article.

Next, we will indicate different practices and techniques that allow recovery, conservation and Increased natural fertility of soils.

Among the different techniques and practices that allow proper management of the Earthand that help invest the impoverishment and degradation of soils as a natural resource, we find:

• Take samples and carry out soil analysis to know their physical-chemical characteristics and properties, being able to detect any type of shortcomings.
• Perform rotation and association of crops, thus favoring the agricultural work and machinery that turns the soils are minimal.
• Make planting directly, without applying any herbicides or chemical fertilizers.
• Keep soil organisms, which guarantee natural fertility (chemical, physics and biological) of soils, as well as the good productivity of crops.
• Application of natural fertilizers (cow manure or decomposition chicken, earthworm humus, composter fertilizer or ashes, among others).
• Place live or dead coverage on the ground, thus allowing the earth to conserve its moisture and nutrients characteristic of the ground layers of the soil.

These and many more are the main techniques and practices of soil conservation that are carried out through the “Ecological soil management“, one of the main projects carried out by agroecology programs.

If you want to read more articles similar to Soil conservation: importance, techniques and practiceswe recommend that you enter our category of other environment.