Soil Health: The Key Foundation for Enhancing Agricultural Production

A pioneer in Brazil and one of the only books in the world on soil health and sustainable agriculture, the book Soil Health and Sustainable Agriculture in Brazil addresses this topic that is still recent in studies and research. Professor Maurício Cherubin, from the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (Esalq) at the University of São Paulo (USP), and one of the authors of the work, comments on the subject.

Importance of the book

The topic of soil health is, despite being relatively new within science, one of the most discussed topics today, as the professor explains. He states that, due to the pioneering nature of the work in the country, it becomes a landmark both for teaching in the area at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and for the agricultural sector itself in Brazil.

Cherubin comments that receiving an invitation from the American Soil Science Society (SSSA) was something very important, since, according to the author of the work, it is something difficult to achieve for countries outside the United States, especially on a subject that specifically covers a certain country, in this case, Brazil. “This shows that we have agriculture, here in Brazil, that generates a series of expectations for the world, in the coming decades, whether from the point of view of food production or from the point of view of climate change”, he adds.

The author of the work also explains that the area has grown worldwide: “In the last ten years, we have produced 75% of scientific knowledge in this area and, in the last five years, we have produced half of this knowledge. So, it is a new area in which we have to produce knowledge and, almost simultaneously, apply it in the field, because the demand occurs daily. Hence the importance of spreading knowledge, so that more people, more students and more professionals in the field can become interested and help research and generate solutions within soil health”.

Soil health

Cherubin states that, in terms of soil, Brazil, located in a tropical region, has exceptional production conditions, but maintenance of this is not done naturally and a series of management is required to make Brazilian soil productive. An example given by the professor is the Cerrado region and the fact that Brazil was a large importer of food before the technological advances used in the region, correcting the acidity of the soil and replacing the nutrients necessary for its productivity, which created an exponential leap for food production in the country and transformed it into a power in the area.

“To try to summarize what soil health is, it is nothing more than the ability of our soils to function, being that means for plants to grow, develop and produce, but it also has a fundamental function in other ways that often people can’t even understand”, comments the teacher. In this sense, it explains its importance in climate regulation, as it is the largest carbon storage compartment in the terrestrial environment, and can be an important means of solving climate change.

“Another basic connection is with water. We frequently see cases of flooding in large cities, more and more water contamination problems, and we know that the soil is fundamental in this because it is a great natural filter, so every time we waterproof the soil or contaminate it, We are damaging the quality and quantity of water, and this impacts us. So, soil health is the great basis for us to be able to produce more, produce better and produce in a changing planet environment, making this production increasingly complex”, he concludes.