
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
2| EDAPHOS
When the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio
is not balanced, microbes accelerate
carbon consumption, respiring carbon
dioxide back to the atmosphere,
depleting carbon and causing long-
term degradation. Organic matter
levels are so low in many arable soils
that there is not enough energy
or air to allow biological activity to
function. As such, soil begins to slump
and become lifeless, leading to poor
rooting, poor plant health and poor
nutrient utilisation. Growers end up
buying more inputs to replace what
the soil cannot provide – and this goes
on and on until the farm is buying in
almost everything, adding significant
expense to the operation. To begin
to get out of this spiral, the emphasis
needs to shift from high yield to
efficiency, bringing biology to the fore.
Over the last 30 years or so, the
emphasis has been on growing for
maximum yield – any problems can be
overcome by increasing output. This
has placed a big emphasis on increased
nitrogen applications and associated
inputs. However, what we are trying to
achieve is to place more emphasis on
efficiency by building fertility and the
associated soil health.
Change from within the
industry
Essentially, there is only one person
who can change farming, and that’s
the farmer. Our role as agronomists
is to advise and support them so they
can have the confidence to make the
decision to change – something that is
lost when farming is driven by inputs.
One could ask why we need to change
when science and the industry believes
yield is most important. This high-
input system has been tremendously
successful, but it can only work when
soils are healthy and function as a
living entity.
As soil health deteriorates, the costs
of soil management and chemical and
fertiliser inputs begin to accelerate.
With this, the use of chemicals and
associated problems escalates, which
leads to increased issues with toxicity
to the environment. There is also a
build-up of resistance to pests and
aggressive recovery of problems after
treatment. The solution isn’t to keep
on doing more of the same, which
is what many are doing. In fact, the
industry tends to promote disease and
insect problems rather than control
them. As natural predators and
soil health deteriorates, the system
becomes completely unsustainable.
We have been treating symptoms
without due attention to their causes.
Fortunately, farmers across the world
are realising this cannot go on. This is
a system change driven by farming and
not the associated industry or science.
This change is not a fantasy, but a real
paradigm shift in thinking. It has been
developing for some 20 years now. We
have found that by changing farming
practices through emphasising carbon
rather than nitrogen, and through
farming with nature rather than turbo-
charging and burning the life out of
soil, inputs can dramatically reduce.
We begin to change from applying
products in order to grow a crop, to a
systems approach whereby the system
becomes the driver for growth and
products support the system. We have
lost and bypassed natural resources
and placed the emphasis on inputs to
achieve output.
Mike Harrington walking
a field of cover crops
with owner, Charles
Hunter-Smart, discussing
the benefits the crop will
bring
It is a whole-
system change,
as all things
become
interconnected,
which is an
important shift
in thinking
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