AGRICULTURAL NEWS - The crucial link between soil health and optimal, sustainable crop yield is well established. Dr Neil Miles, a soil scientist with the South African Sugarcane Research Institute, explores this subject, focusing in particular on the upper surface of the soil.
Over the past 10 to 15 years, scientists have realised that the top 5mm or so of the soil profile (unofficially dubbed the ‘soil skin’) have a profound effect on the soil’s health and production potential.
“The soil skin affects aspects such as water infiltration, aeration of the soil profile, nutrient cycling, and soil biology. So, if this top layer of soil is damaged or lost for any reason, the functioning of the entire soil profile beneath it is negatively affected,” says soil scientist, Dr Neil Miles.
Soil skin health and quality is particularly compromised when there is no organic cover.
A bare soil surface bakes under the sun to form a hard crust, which limits permeability to air and water. Fragile germinating seedlings struggle to emerge successfully from beneath a crusted soil skin, and an uncovered soil is open to water and wind erosion.
