Soil health is in a state of emergency!
"In my opinion, our current soil fertility for agricultural production is in an emergency situation."– Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai, expressed concerns about "soil health", according to an article posted on the Vietnam Agriculture newspaper.
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai, former Director of the Soils and Fertilizers Research Institute - SFRI, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was interviewed with the title "Soil health is in a state of emergency!". The interview was published on the Science and Technology Section of the Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper on November 9, 2020.
Sustainable agriculture must start from soil
Journalist: Why have provinces and cities recently ordered the SFRI to test "soil health" for agricultural production, sir?
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai: “In recent years, the government has issued many regulations related to land management to serve the country's socio-economic development. In which, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has issued many circulars mainly focusing on land resources management. The government has also issued Decree 35, Decree 62 regulating the management of rice land, which emphasized soil quality and fertility improvement for rice cultivation. The National Assembly has promulgated the Law of Cultivation, which contains very detailed provisions on arable land use and protection.
That is, after a long period of intensive farming to increase productivity, due to overuse of fertilizers and chemical pesticides, soil is being degraded, soil productivity and land use efficiency are decreasing.
Currently, farmers account for about 60% of the country's population relying on agricultural land. If we want to have a sustainable agriculture, better life in both wealth and spirit of farmers, besides high-tech agriculture in greenhouses, it is necessary to look at the key role of soil and the permanence of soil-based traditional agriculture.
Get the soil sample (Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper)
He added: “For a long time, we paid little attention to soil for agricultural production, and did not periodically evaluate soil quality and fertility. Therefore, there has been no suitable measures to protect and improve the soil. For many years, we have been intensively farming for productivity, using a lot of chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and less organic fertilizers. So the soil has been gradually degraded. Firstly is physical degradation, the soil is no longer porous, but becomes compact, hard, and changes in structure. Secondly is chemical degradation, some nutrients in the soil are unbalanced such as excess phosphorus, potassium deficiency, micronutrient deficiency, heavy metal pollution, contaminated irrigation water along river basins. Thirdly is biological degradation as more harmful organisms than beneficial ones.
Soil health involves three mentioned factors. But due to lack of funding, the provinces that we have been working for, have not paid much attention to soil physics and chemistry. Soil biology is now only interested in areas with problems of soil-borne diseases such as nematode caused diseases on black pepper, coffee…
Journalist: So in short, is soil health at the level as "sneezing and runny nose" or “severe illness”, sir?
“In my opinion, our current soil fertility for agricultural production is in an emergency situation. Therefore, the Government issued a regulation in the Law of Land in 2013, the Law of Cultivation in 2018, that the soil must be checked every five years in order to have measures for protection and improvement” – Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai, expressed concerns about "soil health".
The relationship between plants and soil today
Journalist: "From such poor soil quality, how does it affect crops?"
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai: “Firstly, nutrient supplying capacity of the soil is reduced, unbalanced for plants, so it is necessary to apply a lot of new fertilizers for productivity. However, current fertilizer application mainly does not rely on nutrient supplying capacity of the soil and plant nutritional needs. That’s why, there are some nutrients in excess, some nutrients in deficiency or some nutrients not applied. Consequently, the yield of crops are likely to be high, but the quality is not high enough, more pests appearance and environmental impact.
Soil degradation causes nutrient imbalance, nutrient supplying capacity of the soil is reduced, causing farmers to apply more chemical fertilizers, causing soil degradation, especially nitrogen fertilization, affecting soil structure and causing environmental pollution, especially to groundwater, greenhouse gas emissions. The solution for this is to apply fertilizers based on nutrient supplying capacity of the soil, plant needs, and balanced nutrients between inorganic and organic fertilizers.
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai, expressed concerns about "soil health"
Journalist: "Not only low in quality, but how is the soil being polluted, sir?"
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai: Firstly, pollution is due to excessively inorganic fertilizer application. For example, overdose of N fertilizer application in soil will be transformed into ions NO3-, NH4+ and accumulated more in plants, this will be toxicity to users by causing diarrhea or affecting nerves, these ions will also leach to groundwater causing environmental pollution. Secondly, pollution is due to heavy metals. In fact, many agricultural lands have to be irrigated with river water, but rivers are polluted with heavy metals discharged by industrial zones, which accumulate in crops, especially vegetables. Currently, many agricultural lands have to be irrigated with river water, but rivers are polluted with heavy metals discharged by industrial zones, which accumulate in trees, especially for vegetables. Thirdly, biological pollution i.e. harmful microorganism density is higher than beneficial microorganism density.
“The poor quality soil is scattered, alternated with each other and not concentrated in one district, one province. Even if one commune is intensively cultivated and balanced fertilization, the soil is still good, but the neighbor commune is also intensively cultivated but imbalanced fertilization, the soil is poor.
– Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai
Concerns about organic farming
Journalist: "There are many companies that want to invest in organic agricultural production, but also worried about how many years needed for leaving the soil abandon, it would take for the soil less polluted, what is your opinion on this?"
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Lai: “In my opinion, shifting to organic agriculture does not mean that you have to leave the soil abandon for a while but keep producing, in this transition period, it should be cultivated but do not apply inorganic fertilizers or chemical pesticides in order to clean the soil and still have a source of income. It will then go for organic after two or three years.
My opinion is that raw materials for organic fertilizer production are not abundant, such as peat, if exploited, it will affect the forest and the environment, while the byproduct waste is huge but has not been taken advantage of use. We are ready to transfer waste treatment technology to companies.
Today's organic fertilizers are not completely organic, such as rice straw treatment by using microbial products, but need some nitrogen fertilizer to feed microorganisms, similarly peat and waste treatment still requires some nitrogen fertilizer, so can it be organic certified? On the contrary, it is not true that pig manure is organic because pigs now eat industrial food, use antibiotics rather than eat vegetables and bran as they were in the past. So don't be too extreme. The government much give out criteria first, because it is very difficult to say that organic products must be 100% organic inputs. In my opinion, we now should focus on agricultural production towards organic, we will then achieve both ensuring productivity and quality and contributing to soil improvement."
- Duong Dinh Tuong – Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper
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