Ways through which soil loses nutrients in the farm

Ways through which soil loses nutrients in the farm

  1. Continuous cropping without adequate nutrient replacement through recycling.
  2. Lack of crop rotation that enhances deficiency of a particular nutrient from the soil thereby reducing its availability.
  3. Removal of vegetation cover which exposes the soil to agents of erosion namely wind and/or run off. This results to loss of the topsoil which carries most nutrients as well as organic matter.
  4. Burning up of biomass which releases water and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere leading to their decrease from the natural “storage” system.
  5. Extreme pH levels – most crops grow well in soils that are slightly acidic to slightly saline. In both extremes, soil nutrients get ‘locked up’ making them unavailable for plant use.
  6. Water logging and leaching – water logging reduces plants’ capacity to take up nutrients from the soil whereas leached nutrients are out of reach for most shallow-rooted plants.