Soil management

Soil management concerns all operations, practices, and treatments used to protect soil and enhance its performance.

Practices

Soil management practices that affect soil quality:

• Controlling traffic on the soil surface helps to reduce soil compaction, which can reduce aeration and water infiltration.
• Cover crops keep the soil anchored and covered in off-seasons so that the soil is not eroded by wind and rain.
• Crop rotations for row crops alternate high-residue crops with lower-residue crops to increase the amount of plant material left on the surface of the soil during the year to protect the soil from erosion.
• Nutrient management can help to improve the fertility of the soil and the amount of organic matter content, which improves soil structure and function.
• Tillage, especially reduced-tillage or no-till operations limit the amount of soil disturbance while cultivating a new crop, and help to maintain plant residues on the surface of the soil for erosion protection and water retention.

Advantages of soil management

• Maintain soil fertility
• Restore soil fertility
• Make the agricultural process an economic one
• Help increase yield