Organic amendments as sustainable tool to recovery fertility in intensive agricultural systems

Abstract

Intensive agriculture is a farming system characterised by a large use of inputs, causing a large pressure on the environment. As peculiar and efficient example of intensive agriculture cultivation under plastic tunnels provides several advantages for farmers due to improvement of microclimatic conditions coupled with a relatively low investment costs. In the Mediterranean Basin such cultivation systems reach about 200,000 ha mainly in Spain, Turkey, Italy, and Morocco. As downside, intensive agriculture negatively affects soil fertility principally because of a loss in soil organic matter. Sustainable practices providing organic amendments could be a useful tool to maintain or increase organic matter content in agricultural soils, preserving and improving soil fertility. An improved knowledge of management factors affecting soil quality is crucial to plan farming systems that effectively maintain soil fertility. Therefore, this review focuses on the potential value of organic amendments in the recovery of soil fertility, in particular in sites under plastic cover intensive farming system. Following a brief overview of the effects of intensive agriculture on soil, the review describes various organic amendments used in agriculture and their benefits on soil fertility, to conclude with the need, in the future researches, to identify organic amendments able to maximize a recovery of soil fertility.

Characterization of Composted Organic Amendments for Agricultural Use

“…The application of composted organic amendments to agricultural soil can enhance soil quality and fertility (Scotti et al, 2015). However, organic amendments represent a potential source of contaminants (e.g., heavy metals, organic compounds, human pathogens, mobile genetic elements, antibiotic resistance genes, etc.)…”

The Use of High Tunnels to Produce Fruit and Vegetable Crops in North America

“…Studies to look at which amendments are most useful in HT systems without resulting in excess accumulation of some nutrients or higher EC levels would be worthwhile [91]. 7) Overall the production of plastic globally has increased 10% every year, from 1.3 million tons in 1950 to 225 million tons in 2004.…”

Short-term Effects of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers on Soil Properties and Enzyme Activities in Rice Production

“…Soil organic matter and clay particles have large surface areas and have a large number of exchange sites. As a consequence of the application of organic amendments, which increase organic C stock and result is soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) increases (Scotti et al, 2015).…”

“…The positive effect of judicious use of organic manure and inorganic fertilizers on productivity of crops and soil fertility has been reported by many workers (Baishya et al, 2015;Singh et al, 2015 andKundu et al, 2016) Organic amendments such as recycling of agricultural wastes and application of organic manures have sustained crop production for several years before the introduction of inorganic fertilizers along with the entry of high yielding and fertilizer responsive cultivars that have largely replaced the traditional practices (Ramachandran and Biswas, 2016). However, there are many reports that the yield of crops are either stagnate or declined in recent years due to continuous application of mineral fertilizers alone (Sekhon et al, 2009;Scotti et al, 2015). The major reason behind this is the decline in soil organic carbon (SOC) which is considered as the most important factor in maintaining soil fertility and sustaining the productivity of agroecosystems (Su et al, 2006).…”