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

Charles E. Kellogg

The POWER of SOIL!

Without soil,we are nothing. Do you agree?

The stuff that that you probably call “dirt” are the foundation of life.  

Please open your eyes and your mind to the connection between soil and life.

I will show you what have soil contributes to our life…

First of all, water. We need water to survive not only for drinks but also for our biological systems to functions. Water also needed for plant to survive and continuously produce oxygen for living organism to survive. Even our routine activity also cannot separated from water such as shower, cooking, planting, washing and so on... But in order for water to retain and go through the hydrological processes they need a reservoir.

This is where the Soil play their roles.

Secondly, the food productions. Our food was produced by soil through agricultural activities. We plant rice, wheat, vegetables, fruits... Where do you think your bread, juices,cereal come from? They all come from plants, where this plant come from then? 

Of course they grow in soil!

Our milk, meat also come from soil because animal consume plant, while plant grow in soil...

Thirdly, shelters. A skyscraper building, houses, factory etc... all was made from the soil. We need wood, sand, stone, clay to build a house... our house would not exist without soil as the house need soil as a base!

Fourthly, cloth. Cloth are made of cotton, wool, linen, silk that come from plants and animals that eats plants. 

Lastly, soil also needed to produce fossil fuel such as petroleum and coal. This happened when ancient plant and animals remains buried in the soil and undergone extreme changes.

  

  

Everything that we use or eat indeed linked to soil no matter how you deny it. We depend on soil in our life, without soil human will likely become extinct. Soil is often the forgotten component yet soil is crucial to food production, urban development and many more...

So, please stop being so ignorant and arrogant as we are not so great without SOIL!

By knowing how soil is so important, let us together learn how to manage and sustain our soil. Of course first of all we need to understand the basic soil science before we manage it.

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame as

being unwilling to learn!"

-Benjamin Franklin-

Important processes in SOIL!

There are four soil forming processes that should be remembered:

1. Additions
Consist of materials deposited on the soil from above and materials that moved in with ground water.

2. Losses
Occur as nutrient taken up by plant and plant are harvested and removed.

3. Translocation
Involves movement of materials.

4. Transformation
Involves in changing of soils.