Different types of soil conservation methods ensure long-term usage of land and keep it productive for future generations. Let’s consider their benefits in regard to soil conservation.
Conservation Tillage - The conservation tillage aims at addressing wind and water erosion by covering the earth with vegetation (either crops or their residues) and limiting the number of tilling operations. Another significant aspect is to choose the proper time for field operations, depending on the soil types. For example, clay ones are better to till after harvesting while other types are better to plow before seeding.
Contour Farming - The soil conservation method proves efficient in slope territories and suggests planting species along the contour. Rows up and down the slope provoke soil erosion due to water currents while rows along the contour restrain it. An impact of terracing is similar: it also helps to conserve soil and reduce its degradation processes.
Strip Cropping - In this case, farmers combine high-growing crops with low-growing ones for the sake of wind protection, like when corn grows in strips with forage crops. The strip cropping practice works even better when high-growing crops are intensified in the sides where winds blow most frequently.
An extra benefit is the organic matter material from the low crops.
Windbreaks - As the name suggests, this soil conservation practice is used to reduce the power of winds and its disruptive effect on soil. These are trees or bushes to shelter crops from snow and winds planted in several rows. Depending on the number of rows, we can distinguish windbreaks properly (up to five rows) and shelterbelts (six and more).
Crop Rotation - Crop rotation vs. mono-cropping farming suggests changing agro species instead of planting one and the same for many subsequent seasons.
Farmers applying this soil conservation method reap numerous benefits. Crop rotation helps them improve the earth structure with diverse root systems, to mitigate pest establishments, and to add nitrogen to the land with legumes known as nitrogen-fixing plants.
Cover Crops - This soil conservation technique is another way to avoid bare soils and additionally benefit from planting cover crops – secondary species – in-between growing cash crops for different reasons like to:
Produce forage and grazing material for cattle;
Provide green manure;
Assist in weed control;
Retain moisture;
Ensure a natural environment for microorganisms and minor animals;
Balance nitrogen concentration (either releasing or accumulating it with certain plants).
Buffer Strips - These are trees and bushes on the banks of water bodies to prevent sediment, water wash offs. Their roots fix the soil to avoid slumping and erosion, canopies protect from excessive sunlight to water inhabitants and falling leaves are a source of organic matter and food of minor aquatic animals.
Integrated Pest Management - Pests are a great nuisance to agriculturalists and have been a major issue to tackle while chemicals poison nature leaking to water and the atmosphere. It is important to eliminate synthetic herbicides replacing them with organic ones or establishing biological enemies of pests whenever possible, rotating crop species to minimize increasing pest populations in the same field for years and using alternative techniques in complex.
Benefits of Soil Conservation
Humankind in general and farmers in particular benefit from numerous advantages of soil conservation. This agricultural practice contributes to sustainability in a number of ways:
Boosts earth quality and productivity. Maintaining the natural environment for earth-dwelling organism’s increases fertility and reduces the necessity of chemical fertilizing, thus boosting yields and saving costs at the same time.
Mitigates erosion Soil conservation methods to reduce erosion and depletion help agriculturalists to avoid the expansion of new lands when territories become infertile.
Promotes water infiltration and increases its storage. The soil conservation technique of minimum tillage vs. conventional plowing affects soil moisture
by reducing cracking and evaporation as well as rising the infiltration rate.
Aids air and water purification. The importance of soil conservation relates to water supplies, and the earth functions as a natural filter to purify water. Soil conservation mitigates the concentration of pollutants and sediments. In its turn, water is the basic condition to dissolve nutrients for plants. Soil carbon sequestration and reduced chemical applications contribute to air purity, too.
Gives food and shelter for wildlife. Land with growing vegetation is a living environment for animals; it is not only the source for nourishment but their home as well.
“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.”
– Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1733
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