“Agricultural practices that enhance soil health are as good for the farmer as they are for the environment. Proven benefits of healthy soil include boosting crop yields, enhancing water quality, increasing drought resilience, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing carbon sequestration and building disease suppression.
“To continue growth and adoption of practices that benefit the health of our nation’s soils, the Soil Health Institute (SHI) has endorsed a list of 19 “Tier 1” soil health measurements. After three years of gathering input and feedback from scientists, farmers, field conservationists, soil test labs and more, these specific measurements, when regionally defined, help define management strategies to improve soil function – like nutrient and water availability.
“Farmers in each region of the United States face different struggles and challenges when it comes to maintaining and increasing soil health. With such a wide variation in soil type, moisture, precipitation and countless other factors, managing soil health consistently and creating standard measurements for soil testing across the industry are not easy tasks. To continue the growth and adoption of soil health practices, SHI is taking steps to streamline this process for better communication and a shared understanding of how the industry measures and improves soil health.
“These indicators are considered the best measures that are currently available for farmers to define soil health in regionally specific conditions.”
Read the Full Article here: https://groundwork.ag/groundswell/the-language-of-soil-health