Building soil is our main activity

It’s the result of what we do with all our practices. Loss of fertile soil is the biggest problem of the current agricultural systems. The art of soil building is finding the right chemical balance between clay, water, air, organic material and micro organisms while adding large amounts of bio mass. After integrating the water retention systems, we have to bring more life back into the soil by a process called mineral cycling (see picture below). This supports plant growth which will bring back organic materials into the ground.

Healthy soils are a result of a healthy, intact soil food web (microbiology) and are the foundation for all life. It’s what connects everything that exists above ground to what exists below. An incredible diversity of organisms makes up the soil food web. As these organisms eat, grow, and move through the soil, they make it possible to have clean water, clean air, healthy plants, and moderated water flow.

There are many ways that the soil food web is an integral part of landscape processes. Soil organisms decompose organic compounds, including manure, plant residue, and pesticides, preventing them from entering water and becoming pollutants. They sequester nitrogen and other nutrients that might otherwise enter groundwater, and they fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, making it available to plants. Many organisms enhance soil aggregation and porosity, thus increasing infiltration and reducing runoff.

The soil food web supports soil stabilisation, soil aeration, nutrient retention, nutrient cycling, water retention and plant fertility. Soil security equals food security. The practices to build soil we tried out are the following:

• Thermal composting

• Keyline design and patterning

• Chop and drop

• Bio fertilizers

• Irrigation

Everything is directly linked to something that is naturally happening already. In our experience the only economically sustainable and fasted way on small or big scale is by holistic grazing.