Signs of Soil Degradation

The Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations identifies soil degradation as a significant shift in the health status of soil, resulting in a situation where the ecosystem's capacity is diminished and is not able to provide goods and services for its beneficiaries. 

The health status of degraded soils doesn't allow them to provide the normal goods and services that are expected of that particular soil in its ecosystem. This article will cast a special eye on every aspect of soil degradation as we look to equip you with everything you need to know on the signs of soil degradation.

There are many types of soil around the world. The UK alone has over 700 varieties, mainly made up of clay, sand, silt, loam and peat. These soils have different characteristics which have proven useful to humans in various ways.

Healthy soil has a good combination of soil structure, chemistry, organic matter content, biology and water permeation for its type. Once soil degradation takes effect, a lot of these aspects change. Some of the noticeable signs of soil degradation include:

According to Agrivi, We use 60 times more land to grow and raise food than we do to live on. This arable land used for agriculture can sometimes fall victim to soil degradation. When that happens, you can easily notice that yields decrease gradually. 

When farmers notice that their yields are dropping, it is only wise to get expert help and identify the problem before it persists. When the soil is completely degraded, growing any type of crop becomes a problem even with increased inputs.

When soil is degraded, the degradation can affect the infiltration, storage and drainage of water in the soil, resulting in waterlogging. 

   
Most flooding does not happen because of the type of soil or the slope of the land, but because of soil degradation. The land is commonly altered from its natural state changing its physical composition. For this reason, the transformed land is unable to soak up water, resulting in flooding. Flooding is a sign of soil degradation that is easily noticeable.

Typically healthy soil is teeming with biodiversity. Soil includes a variety of earthworms,  arachnids, several species of insects, and hundreds of different fungi and bacteria species. 

   
There is nowhere else in the world that you will find nature so densely packed. According to the Natural History Museum, one teaspoon of soil can contain more organisms than the number of humans living on Earth. But what do these organisms have to do with aeration?

The living organisms play an important role in maintaining fertility, structure, drainage, and aeration of the soil. When the soil is not aerated, these organisms die, as well as the roots of plants. This is a common indicator of soil degradation that you should focus on. 

These are just some of the common signs of soil degradation. According to FAO, the economic cost of soil degradation for the European Union is estimated to be in the order of tens of billions of euros annually. These signs will help you to discover soil degradation in advance and control it before it worsens.

Soil degradation is slowly becoming a major issue, thus endangering global food security. The world's environmental organisations must play their part to combat this problem. Below are some examples of how soil degradation can be minimised and subsequently stopped.

Before we begin, it is important to acknowledge the fact that the task at hand is not an easy one. Avoiding deforestation completely is an uphill task. However, deforestation can be reduced to create an impressive solution to reshaping and restoring forests and vegetation cover.

    
There is a necessity for individuals all over the world to respect forest cover and reduce some of the human-driven actions that encourage logging. By eliminating deforestation, the soil’s ability to naturally regenerate can be restored.
    
Governments, international organisations, and other environmental stakeholders must ensure that there are appropriate measures in place for making zero net deforestation a reality in the fight to inhibit soil degradation.

We should observe proper tillage mechanisms, which hold as one of the most sustainable ways of avoiding a decline in soil quality. This is also known as conservation tillage, which means tillage mechanisms targeted at making very minimal changes to the soil’s natural condition and at the same time improving the soil’s productivity.
    
Examples of conservation tillage include leaving the previous year’s crop residue on the surface to shield the soil from erosion and avoiding poor tillage methods such as deep ploughing regularly.
 
Practising crop rotation also allows different plants to grow in an area of soil every year. This allows the soil to replenish itself with nutrients that are lacking after the continuous growth of one type of plant.

The issue with soil erosion and degradation is that their effects are widely irreversible. Still, soil organic matter and plant nutrients can be replenished. To restore the lost soil mineral matter and organic content, it would require what is known as land reclamation.

Land reclamation encompasses activities centred towards restoring the previous organic matter and soil’s vital minerals. This may include activities such as the addition of plant residues to degraded soils and improving management practices if in commercial use.
   
One of the simplest but mostly ignored methods of land reclamation is the planting of vegetation on the affected soils. Crops, trees, and flowers act as protective covers as they are helpful at making the soil stronger by stabilizing the land surface.

We have discussed the various signs of soil degradation that you should look out for. Most people lack the knowledge and experience to identify, prevent, and control soil degradation on their land.

At Dejex, we believe that prevention is the best cure, and that is why we have specialised personnel to deal with soil matters. Our agronomy services are diverse abd include expertise in soil science. In our agronomy services, we carry out fertiliser calculations, substrate recipe design, and cover crop schedules. 

These services will enable you to prevent soil degradation by helping you limit the number of inputs that you use on your soil. We also plan irrigation systems which can also help reduce degradation in large outdoor cropping environments.