Agricultural News
Impact of Agricultural Inputs on Soil Health: Assessing Farmer Interest
Fri, 08 Apr 2022 12:57:11 CDT
Farmers around the world are increasingly focused on improving the health of their soils. This interest is well-placed because healthy soils generally have more plant-available nutrients, are more drought resilient, more disease suppressive, and more profitable. Management systems that improve soil health also benefit the environment by sequestering more carbon, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing nutrient runoff and leaching, and even providing habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. As more farmers invest to improve the health of their soils, questions are arising as to how agricultural inputs impact soil health.
To assess the level of farmers' interest in this topic, the Soil Health Institute partnered with Trust In Food™, Farm Journal's sustainable ag division, in using a combination of survey questions, analysis of published content, and tracking farmers' engagement with articles on the topic posted to AgWeb. The survey was sent to 10,000 U.S. farmers who operate at least 100 acres and included:
· 3,500 corn/soybean farmers,
· 3,500 wheat/barley/oat farmers,
· 1,500 cotton/peanut farmers, and
· 1,500 fruit/vegetable (specialty crop) farmers.
Notably, 66% of respondents said they are interested in the impact of agricultural inputs on soil health. When those farmers were asked to rate their interest in the effects of manures, pesticides, biologicals, or fertilizers; 62% responded that they are interested in all of those inputs.
Analyzing the level of information consumed by a random sample of 10,000 AgWeb users showed that those farmers who are interested in both agricultural inputs and soil health consume 34% more digital information than the whole group, operate 446 more acres, and have a median income $144,410 greater than the whole group. In addition, 45% of these farmers are early adopters of conservation practices (which is 25% higher than the entire group).
"This analysis clearly shows that many farmers are interested in how different agricultural inputs impact the health of their soils," said Dr. Wayne Honeycutt, President and CEO of the Soil Health Institute. "To serve these farmers, our next step is to assess the state of the science so we can determine what is currently known and identify any critical gaps that need to be addressed."
The full report can be found here
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