Soil Renaissance Begins

WINNIPEG, Canada (DTN) -- A pair of foundations unveiled their strategic plan on Tuesday to create a "Soil Renaissance" in agriculture.

Noting that science seems to know more about the cosmos than the soil under our feet, Farm Foundation and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation said they have been working to improve the research on soils and science tools farmers can use to measure their soil health.

The strategic plan was released at the World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, which is being held through Wednesday in Winnipeg.

The two foundations have been working on their Soil Renaissance strategic plan for months with a core group of researchers to identify gaps in soil research and education. While Farm Foundation and the Noble Foundation have started the project, Bill Buckner, president and CEO of the Noble Foundation, said other groups and people will have to get engaged for the Soil Renaissance plan to gain some legs with farmers, agronomists and other agriculturalists nationally.

"For the Soil Renaissance to meet its full potential, it will require multiple individuals and organizations," Buckner said. "Many groups already are working in specific areas of soil health. The Soil Renaissance is a central hub through which people can learn what's now being done, gaps to be filled and ways they can help."

The strategic plan is a starting point that will evolve and expand as work is completed, new challenges are identified and more individuals join the effort, said Neil Conklin, president of Farm Foundation.

"These are really critical issues that are going to shape the future of agriculture beyond my professional life," Conklin said in a phone interview. "We want to be here on the ground floor."

One goal is to come up with a widely accepted measure or test for soil health that would be easy to understand. One possibility would be to combine a soil health test created at Cornell University with a soil-organic profile test developed by USDA researcher Rick Haney in Temple, Texas.

"If we are going to make soil health work for farmers, then it has got to be practical," said Bruce Knight, a consultant on the project and former USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.

Coupled with the research and soil tests, Knight said teams helping develop the Soil Renaissance program also realized it is important to quantify economic value for farmers and landowners to improve soil health. As the Soil Renaissance project moves forward, it will need research on the economic benefits to generate more synergy at the farm level. Knight noted he thinks that is where a lot of sustainability initiatives fail with day-to-day farm realities.

"They keep coming up with metrics that really don't apply to on-farm profitability," he said. "We need to marry soil health with farm economics."

Tim Recker, an Iowa farmer, said at the kickoff event that measurements creating a baseline for soil health would help reshape land values for renting or selling the land. This could be critical to getting some producers to consider not just no-till farming practices, but also growing cover crops.

"It has to have that economics in it for farmers," Recker said. "If I'm going to spend that money on cover crops, where's the economic benefit? And they want to see it now."

The groups announced the Soil Renaissance is also hoping to see a surge in activity next year. The United Nations has designated 2015 as the International Year of Soils.

Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com

Follow Chris Clayton on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

(AG/SK)

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