Soil conservation is the preventing technique to reduce the losses from soil erosion , degradation which is caused by the many factors.
Such as change in pH, desertification, loss of vegetative cover, change in soil structure, use of toxic pollutant, miss use of fertilizer, overgrazing, poor farming, deforestation. Soil erosion is the major problem in agriculture which leads to big loss every year due to two main factors, one is wind and other is water and ultimately leads to fertility loss.
Land degradation, loss of arable land, flooding, clogging of water ways drought, are the main effects of soil degradation. Soil conservation is the way to reduce these losses. Soil is considered the base of plants in which plants can live, grow and most important thing is that it provides supports to humans to live otherwise there will be no other support to live.
So one aspect of maintaining soil viability is to make sure that the nutrients are being refreshed. In the woods the falling leaves will eventually decompose and recharge the soil.
Farmer’s crops, though, could grow more poorly if the same crops are planted and harvested year after year with rotating them to a different crop and adding the missing nutrients mechanically. Solution of soil degradation is that avoiding deforestation conservation tillage, land reclamation and preventing salinization.
What is soil conservation?
Soil is the non-renewable resource which is basis for food, feed, medicine, ecosystem services and fuel. Soil conservation basically useful for prevention and control of erosion but there are lot of other factors which are responsible for degrading the soil including loss of soil fertility, soil structure change, change in pH,
Use of toxic pollutant, desertification, loss of vegetation cover, introduced herbicides such as rabbit and goats, poor farming practices, deforestation Excess and miss use of fertilizers, industrial and mining activities and overgrazing.
Soil erosion is the main problem in the agriculture every year 75 billion metric tons’ soil lost due to wind and water erosion that leads to loss of fertility (pimentel et al.,2004).
Effects of soil degradation are land degradation, drought aridity, loss of arable land, increased flooding, and clogging of water ways.
Importance of soil conservation
Soil conservation is very important to us due to several reasons, soil is considered base of the plants as some plants can live in water but mostly plants can grow only in soil,
Other important reason is that soil supports animals and human beings as these both cannot support without land and most important factor it provides water and also by the land we determined the water quality Almost all plants grow in soil.
There are some aerophytes that will grow in the air, supported only by tree branches or rocks, but most plants aren’t aerophytes. Without plants all of the animals would die (including us) so maintaining the soil that they grow in is important.
Maintenance of Soil
Soils can become depleted of nutrients if plants keep taking the nutrients out and the nutrients are not replaced. So one aspect of maintaining soil viability is to make sure that the nutrients are being refreshed. In the woods the falling leaves will eventually decompose and recharge the soil.
Farmer’s crops, though, could grow more poorly if the same crops are planted and harvested year after year with rotating them to a different crop and adding the missing nutrients mechanically. Solution of soil degradation is that avoiding deforestation conservation tillage, land reclamation and preventing salinization.
But for soil conservation “no tillage” is surely not the most effective! Actually, “Crop and vegetation management (buffer strips, mulching, cover crops) and mechanical methods (geotextiles, terraces, and contour bunds) are more effective in reducing Ra and SLa than soil management techniques (no-tillage, reduced tillage, contour tillage)
Buffer strips, mulching, cover crops, crop rotations and biological pest management can all be part of an effective reduced/no tillage cropping system. Conservation tillage along with different practices like cover crop and crop diversity is the suitable option for sustainable agriculture(Corsi, Friedrich, Kassam, Pisante, & de Moraes Sà, 2012).
The most efficient and economical cropping system does have no/reduced tillage at its core. no-tillage keeps the soil in place and also builds up organic matter is the subsoil layers. Understanding soil processes is important to maintain natural areas.
In arid volcanic lands, lava fragments capture fine particles that move underneath and form the Av and Bw horizons, which allow vegetation settlement and growing. If the pebbles are removed from the surface, the soil is prone to wind and water erosion and will be easily stripped away, leaving the underlying petro calcic horizon to outcrop, and vegetation to disappear.
Most of government reserved for agriculture or livestock land convert to industry or housing. Balance of trade in food sector become bigger due to importation of human food and animal feed.
But for maintaining fertility we have taken short cut of farming chemicals and facing the collapse of health management through food. We need to preserve our soil for the conservation of soils I think that quality criteria have to be determined in order to create units of awareness to ensure the sustainability of the soils.
The classification alone cannot protect the soil for food security and our sustainable future. Soil degradation in all its forms (soil erosion, soil organic carbon loss, soil salinization and solidification, nutrient imbalance.
Soil contamination, soil sealing and land take, soil acidification, soil compaction and water logging) decreases the ability of the soil to hold CO2 and combat climate change. Urgent soil conservation measures are to be strictly followed. Otherwise things will go out of control.
Conclusion
Losses of soil which is caused by many factors can be control by conservation technique. Losses of soil such as Land degradation, loss of arable land, flooding, clogging of water ways drought. Solution of soil degradation is that avoiding deforestation conservation tillage, land reclamation and preventing salinization.
Authors: Ansa Rebi and Komal javed
University of agriculture, Faislabad, Pakistan