What have we done??

Imagine an Utopian world where the world plagues, poverty, war or even climate change no longer exists. When we humans do not need to invent antibiotics, no obesity crisis, no more terrorism and blood baths, are we totally out of danger? 

The answer is no. Even if all of those problems to vanish overnight, we are still do not address the issue in hand which is seen as trivial as compared to seemingly far important concerns. It literally and metaphorically beneath us. We consider it insignificant due its absence in our social media.It is crucial that we realize that all humanity depends on it. As written in Sanskrit text dated 1500 B.C., "Upon this handful of soil survival depends. Husbands it and it will grow our food, our fuel, and our shelter and surround is with beauty. Abuse it, and soil will collapse and die ,taking all humanity with it.".

So, what have we done that continues to destroy our soil?

1.  FARMING

Although farming is important to society in order to provide food .In farming, farmers add nutrients in the form of fertilizers especially if the land is not naturally fertile.This farming practice causes water pollution when rainwater washes away the excess fertilizer. It also causes soil loss. Farmers clear trees and other plants and plow soil to plant crops. But without its natural cover, soil is more exposed to the rain and wind, where leaching occurs. Overgrazing also affects our soil greatly. When farm animals eat large amount of land cover, it destroys the  natural vegetation , exposing the soil to weathering. This leads to desertification which is the expansion of desert condition in areas where natural plant cover has been destroyed.

             

2. CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

 Constructions are made in order to build roads and buildings. But little do we know, at construction sites soil washes away and ends up in nearby river or streams and even lakes and reservoirs. The eroded soil make the rivers muddy, harming aquatic life in the process and raises river levels and causes flood due to buildup in soil on riverbeds.

                 

3. MINING

Digging of strip mines and open pit mines involve the removal of plants and soil from the surface of the ground. This exposes the rocks and minerals to the air and rainwater, therefore increasing the rate of chemical weathering rate.

Its another DIY test for your soil!

Credits to bonnieplants.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38UjsIGCEVA

This video shows about how to test your soil pH level using items that can be easily found in your house!😍 It is a very simple and interesting project that can be done by the entire family member 😄. This project also helps you to understand more about your soil. 😊

THE SOIL FOOD WEB

 

Lets Test Our Soil!

Credits to HGTV for the awesome video!

https://www.facebook.com/HGTV/videos/10154787574484213/

Have you ever wondered why your plants wilt or dead even though you have added sufficient amount of water or fertilizers😟? Maybe it is caused by your soil😲! Have you ever tested your soil before? Is it a no😱? Then you should watch this short yet awesome video on how to test your soil in just a few steps! 😄😁😉

WHY soil are important??

PEOPLE tend to think that soil are not important ..They forget about how these soil play important role in their life. There are saying said that no soil no life… From the quote itself showed how important the soil is…

Soil is the basis for plant to growth, it is contributed to the maintenance of both the natural and planted landscape. It support the wetlands, jungles, forest that spawn the planet’s amazing vegetative BIODIVERSITY.

Other than plant, it also needed to animal biodiversity, above and below the ground. It is essential to the lives of wildlife and domesticated livestocks.

Next, soil is important in providing an adequate amount of water supply and maintaining its quality. Soil and the vegetative supports catch and distribute rainwater and play a key role in cycle of water and supply. The water adsorption properties of soil play role in reducing pollution from chemicals in pesticide and other compound.

Soil also provide both foundation and base materials for buildings, roads, and other building infrastructures.

There a lot of the importance of the soil that we cannot even realized it. So, together we support our soil and at the same time support our own life by take care of them…

Mahatma Gandhi

EARTHWORMS

Composition of Soil in Different Biomes

Are Machines the Future of SOIL ?

An agtech company from the Netherlands is about to make landfall on U.S. soil with a new technology it says could change the way farmers manage soil fertility.

 With its initiatives Springg and SoilCares, the company, Dutch Sprouts, works with Talend, a big data integration company, to blend a mix of hardware and software to gather and analyze soil samples around the globe. It all starts with a handheld scanner that allows farmers to analyze soils on the go, according to Angelique van Helvoort, head of marketing and communications with Dutch Sprouts.

“You simply scan the soil and transfer it to our database,” she says. “Within minutes, a readout and fertilizer advice is sent to the user’s smartphone. In total, the process takes about ten minutes. It’s really quite easy.”

The scanner uses mid-infrared reflectance and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy to “see” detailed information about the soil’s organic components and texture. It also enables farmers to learn about their soil’s concentrations of pH and the main nutrients. By using the same scanner but different algorithms, farmers will soon also be able to determine nutrient levels in animal feed.

The key to success is having a broad database so the samples are correctly calibrated and can make accurate predictions about nutrient levels in the soil. To do this, thousands of samples must be taken. Through artificial intelligence and machine learning, each subsequent sample gets more and more accurate.

“It improves with every sample added to the database,” van Helvoort says.

van Helvoort says the company has finished a successful pilot program in Kenya. She hopes farmers in this market will find the technology to be a game-changer, where they are suddenly exposed to soil fertility information they’ve never had access to before.

In fact, according to former Springg CEO Wouter Kerkhof, of the world’s 500 million farmers, only about 20 million of them can afford the time or money it takes to test soil samples through traditional laboratories. The goal is to take this agtech and stretch it worldwide.

One of the next target markets – the United States. Currently, samples are being collected in the Fargo, N.D., area, a necessary step before launching broadly in the U.S.

“We need a good database before we can enter a new market,” van Helvoort says, adding that the future of farming will rely on easy-to-use tools like this that give farmers quick, easy access to a variety of information.

Uniqueness of soil

The soil horizon

How water loses from soil

WHAT IS THE LAYER OF THE SOIL??

O  - ORGANIC LAYER

Dominated by organic material, consisting of undecomposed or partially decomposed plant  materials, such as dead leaves.

A  - TOPSOIL

Largely material soil developed from parent material; organic matter leached from above gives this horizon a distinctive dark colour.

B  - SUBSOIL

Accumulation of mineral particles such as clay and salts leached from topsoil; distinguished based on colour, structure, and kind of material accumulated from leaching.

C  - SUBSTRATUM

Unconsolidated material derived from the original parent materials from which the soil developed.

SOIL LAYER also known as HORIZON developed because of:

• ·         Amount of humus accumulated

• ·         Differences in weathering with depth

• ·         Translocation of COLLOIDS by water

• ·         Other accumulation or looses