Soil health: what it is and how to improve it

Healthy soil is soil that is alive: it has enough organic matter, crumbly structure, and billions of helpful organisms that feed the crop. Healthy soil holds water, releases nutrients steadily and grows strong roots, so the crop needs less help.

Signs of healthy soil

• Dark colour and an earthy smell
• Crumbly; breaks easily in the hand
• Earthworms and roots throughout
• Water soaks in quickly and does not stand
• Crops grow evenly across the field

Signs of tired soil

• Needs more fertilizer every year for the same yield
• Hard, cracks when dry, sticky when wet
• Few earthworms
• Short, shallow roots
• Low organic carbon in the soil test

How to bring soil back to life

• Add organic matter every season: compost, farmyard manure, crop residue
• Keep the soil covered with mulch or a crop
• Rotate crops and include legumes
• Use fertilizer based on a soil test, not habit
• Support soil life with biofertilizers and biostimulants such as humic acid
• Reduce hazardous chemicals that kill soil organisms

Where Gujarat Bio Organics fits

For nearly 20 years our work has started with the soil. Immunity Granules are applied to the soil for structure and soil life, our biofertilizers add helpful microbes, and every Immunity formula is built to work with living soil, not against it.

Written by Gafar Laiya, founder of Gujarat Bio Organics, working with farmers since 2006. Results differ from farm to farm with soil, weather, crop and management. Farmer experiences on this site are their own reports, not a promise of results.