Abstract
Soil health-based agricultural management practices are widely promoted to reduce erosion, increase nutrient use efficiency, improve soil structure, and sustain or increase yields. Pest and disease management are less frequently considered as components of a soil health management system. We present a framework for how the crop protection industry can advance soil health by developing systems of crop protection innovation that simultaneously target soil health outcomes, either through direct impact on soil or by enabling practices that promote soil health outcomes. Such an approach could lead to cross-sectoral, integrated agricultural solutions that achieve agronomic, environmental, and economic goals.
Highlights
The concept of soil health has united farmers, researchers, government agencies, non-profits, and the private sector around the possibility that management of agroecosystems can meaningfully contribute to solving major environmental challenges
Decades of evidence has illustrated the agronomic and environmental benefits of agricultural practices such as cover cropping, reduced tillage, and diversified crop rotations (Atwood and Wood, 2021). These soil health practices align with the principles of conservation agriculture: maintain living plant cover, reduce disturbance, and diversify crop rotations
We present three key research and development priorities the crop protection community should pursue simultaneously: 1) innovate products and application methods that avoid or reduce impacts on soil health; 2) innovate products that, alone or in combination with plant genetics, leverage soil functions and communities to enhance pest and disease management and/or biogeochemical nutrient cycling and enable reduced input use; and 3) innovate products that enable management practices that benefit soil health, while minimizing tradeoffs
Summary
The concept of soil health has united farmers, researchers, government agencies, non-profits, and the private sector around the possibility that management of agroecosystems can meaningfully contribute to solving major environmental challenges. We present three key research and development priorities the crop protection community should pursue simultaneously: 1) innovate products and application methods that avoid or reduce impacts on soil health; 2) innovate products that, alone or in combination with plant genetics, leverage soil functions and communities to enhance pest and disease management and/or biogeochemical nutrient cycling and enable reduced input use; and 3) innovate products that enable management practices that benefit soil health, while minimizing tradeoffs Achieving these three opportunities requires a fourth innovation: 4) develop new soil health screening and field trial procedures along the crop protection research and development (R&D) stage-gate process (Figure 1). Such assessments are a critical first step towards effectively implementing emerging policies that aim to protect and reverse degradation of soil resources for agriculture, nature, and climate, for example, those that comprise the European Union Soil Strategy for 2030. (European Union, 2021)
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