26/9/2016

Feedingthesoiltofeedtheplants

Feedingthesoiltofeedtheplants

http://www.cra.wallonie.be/en/news/feedingthesoiltofeedtheplants

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26/9/2016

Feedingthesoiltofeedtheplants

9juin2016BernardGODDEN(http://www.cra.wallonie.be/en/addressbook/bernardgodden)
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To provide answers to the organic sectors questions about soil fertility CRAW has performed
soilanalyseswithintheBIO2020farmnetworktostudythesoilsbiologicalactivity.

Preservingandimprovingsoilfertilityisoneofthefoundationsoforganicfarming.Thesoilisfedinorderto
feed the plants. The soil comprises five main components (mineral, liquid, gaseous, organic and living
portions) which interact with one another. A soil can contain up to 1 T/ha earthworms and 3 to 9 T/ha
microorganisms.Theseplayakeyroleinbreakingdownorganicmatterandsupplyingelementsforplants
toassimilate.Thatiswhysoillifeisamajorconcerninorganicfarming.
InthecontextoftheBIO20201 research programme the beneficial effects of soil organisms on the crop in
situ are quantified by soilplant monitoring, among other things. Two complementary methods are used:
biological activity analyses in the laboratory and field methods. Twelve situations within the farm network
weremonitoredinthiswayin2014.Thenumberofsituationsmonitoredwasincreasedin2015inorderto
study crop rotation. A reference plot was analysed on nearly every one of the network farms in autumn,
analysingtheoverallbiologicalactivity,thenitrogenfertilitypotentialandtheorganicmattercontent.
Oneinterestingideaasuggestionmadeduringtalkswiththefarmersinthenetworkwouldbetotakesoil
samplesearlier,attheendofthewinter,sothatpredictiveresultswouldbeavailablebeforethenewgrowth
starts.Theaimwouldthenbetoadjustthefertility,ifnecessary,byapplyingcommercialorganicfertiliser.
Theadvicegiveninrespectofthereferenceplotscouldalsobeappliedtosimilarplotsinthefarmnetwork
andtootherfarmersplots.
Another aspect has to do with determining the effectiveness of the commercial organic fertilisers used in
organicfarming.Thecommercialorganicfertilisersusedbythefarmersinthefarmnetworkwerecollected
thisyear.Theirmineralcomposition(N,P,K,Ca,Mg,C)iscurrentlybeinganalysed.Thereisstrongdemand
fromtheindustryfortheireffectivenesstobedetermined(byanalysingthepotentialnitrification)andthisis
includedintheworkscheduleforthecomingyears.
1BIO2020:

a global organic farming research programme implemented by CRAW in liaison with other
industryplayers.

Dateofupdate9juin2016

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