|
ISSN: 2360-7874 |
Academic Research Journal of
Agricultural Science and Research |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
Vol. 7(7), pp. 475-483, November 2019 Research Soil Organic Matter and its Role in Soil Health and Crop Productivity Improvement
Gebreyes Gurmu
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research. Email: gebreyes0140@gmail.com Telephone address: (+) 251-911380140
Accepted 4 November 2019
Organic substances, by definition, contain the element carbon and it comprises about half of the mass of soil organic matter (SOM). Organic matter in the world’s soil profiles contains four to six times as much C as is found in all the world’s vegetation. SOM plays a critical role in the global C balance that largely controls global climate change being serving as both source and sink for C. In most soils, the percentage of SOM is small, but its effects on soil function are profound. This ever-changing soil component exerts huge influence on many soil physical, chemical, and biological properties and ecosystem functions of soils such as improving soil aggregation, increases nutrient exchange, retains soil moisture, reduces compaction and surface crusting, and increases water infiltration into the soil. Organic matter supplies energy and body-building constituents for most of the organisms in the soil. It has also an impact on the rate of surface-applied herbicides and its carryover effect for future crops growing on the same land. Organic matter also adsorbs heavy metals, which may be toxic to plants or may contaminate soil and reduce its quality. SOM is the best integrator of inherent soil productivity and should be developed as an index of soil quality. Thus, increasing pools of SOM in agricultural ecosystems is very important for restoring soil health and sustainable crop production as well as sequestering atmospheric CO2. Hence, practices such as crop rotations, minimizing tillage operations, use of cover crops, applications of animal manures, green manures, crop residues, and composts as well as the use of chemical fertilizers are very critical to increase the biomass production needed for boosting SOM level in the soil.
Key words: Soil Organic Matter, Soil Health, Sustainable Crop Productivity
How to cite this article (APA Style): Gebreyes G (2019). Soil Organic Matter and its Role in Soil Health and Crop Productivity Improvement. Acad. Res. J. Agri. Sci. Res. 7(7): 475-483
|
|||||||||||||||||||
