The Greenbelt Foundation is providing Ontario farmers the opportunity to measure and evaluate the impact of different beneficial management practices (BMPs) on soil health.
Through a regionally unique Soil Health Testing Program, the Foundation and the US-based Soil Health Institute will advance soil health assessment and management across Ontario, improving profits for farmers, boosting the strength of local food systems, and furthering Ontario’s ecological sustainability goals.
This program will implement an innovative, scalable method for evaluating and tracking improvements in soil health. The soil health indicators measured will include organic carbon concentration, carbon mineralization potential, aggregate stability, permanganate-oxidizable carbon, and available water holding capacity.
These indicators represent a range of soil health outcomes, including increased nutrient cycling capacity, microbial activity, and resistance to erosion. The program will draw on farmer-to-farmer social networks to share technical agronomic knowledge about implementing soil health systems.
The Program aims to sample 300 to 500 farms in the Golden Horseshoe region. Once sampling is completed, participating farmers will receive customized soil health reports to compare soil health in their fields to similar soils in their region. The program will provide farmers with one-on-one support from experts, helping them to set goals, overcome barriers and get on course to build healthy, productive soils.
Source : Ontario Farmer