How to sustain or improve the soil.?

As a rule of thumb, please remember "The Soil need not be exposed to direct sunlight and the sunlight is required only for the plants and that too by the leaves of the plants"

Don't expose the soil to direct sunlight

1. Most of the land is occupied by Trees, Crops etc and only the minimal area is not occupied by any crop. In this circumstance, we can go for Live (or) Green Mulch, Dead Mulch.

2. Crops like Paddy, Sugarcane and so forth, the leftovers after harvest shouldn't be burnt It should be shredded and left as it is to break down and decompose in the soil.

3. Live Mulch can be even weeds as well as any legume crops or grasses as well.

4. Dead Mulch can be plantains, dead leaves, twigs, broken branches etc. The Dead Mulch need to be spread in those areas where the soil is exposed to the sunlight and this will reduce the soil getting hot and also will reduce the evaporation in the process.

The Soil can be enhanced further by making earthworms to live there. The worms can't sustain under sunlight and thus won't go to the highest point of the soil. The earthworms enhance the air circulation, water drainage and give supplements to the underlying roots.

A living soil can be kept up by the consistent adding of biomass, utilisation of FYM, NADEP, vermicompost, bio-fertilisers and bio-enhancers, unique fluid formulations(like vermiwash)during a cropping period, and so forth. As a blind rule, residue deposits ought to be come back to the plot, specifically or by implication. Cattle manure need to come back to the field as fertiliser. As a strategy, the quantity of biomass removed for cattle feed or firewood from an organic farm should be replaced with any other bio-waste on the farm.

We can also improve the soil by making the dead mulch decompose faster by sprinkling (cow dung + cow urine) mixture whenever there is heavy dead mulch available.

Generally, the goats/sheep's are permitted to remain overnight in the land with the goal that the excreta that tumbles from them will enhance the soil and this technique is implementing even today.

Soil carried by Wind

1. We need to implement Wind Breakers to control this and this has to be done in a V shape model.

2. The plants selected should have many branches and it should be thick (like Glyricidia) and should not have only one stem like coconut.

3. During the summer, we can go for short term crops to ensure that the top soil is covered and hence cannot be carried by wind.

Soil carried by Water

1. Water should not flow very fast and this is also one of the reasons for losing the top soil and the nutrients along with it.

2. Where water flows very fast, it should be made to walk. Create trenches along the gradient of the slope or every 25 or 50 feet to ensure that the speed of the water is reduced considerably.

3. Where water walks, it should be made to crawl. If the land is occupied by grasses or other crops, it will make the water slow down to a considerable extent.

4. Where water crawls, it should be made to stop. This can be a storage pit or tank or pond.

Compactness or Hardness

1. The Compactness or Hardness of the soil is done by humans by walking, heavy cattle grazing, heavy machinery, long term non-usage of the land etc.

2. Heavy machinery should never be used when the land is very wet. By Heavy Machinery, I mean tractors, harvesting machines etc.

The above are some of the ways we can sustain or improve the soil.