Understanding how soil works

Grains are a staple food for many people. Global demand is rising steadily, while more and more arable land is lost. This is why researchers have spent many years investigating the factors that might increase yields per hectare. Soil analysis plays an important role in this research.

1,840 square meters. This would equate to a square where each side measures around 42 meters in length. That's the amount of arable land the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has calculated* would be available to each person in the world if it was divided equally. They also discovered that this figure has decreased by half since 1961, while the number of people on Earth has grown from three to almost eight billion in the same period. This development poses major challenges for the food security of the world’s population and is an issue that global politics, science and industry need to address in equal measure. The amount of agricultural land available has also been steadily declining in Germany to make way for housing and transport infrastructure. However, there has been an observable slowdown in this development since 2004.

* Source: World Bank, 2021

While the amount of agricultural land available is decreasing in many places, some countries are seeing an expansion of arable land as a result of forest clearance, for example. The reason behind this is to increase production of high-demand products, such as soy and palm oil. This is a very worrying development from an ecological and climatic perspective, as it involves a reduction in natural CO₂ storage and biodiversity. One way to combat this travesty is with organic farming, which both increases CO₂ storage and biodiversity and is very widely accepted by consumers. However, since the acreage yields of organic farming are too low, it must be supplemented with new and sustainable methods. An effective way to mitigate the reduction in biodiversity and improve the security of food supplies is to increase the acreage yields of crops.

Just as climate change is a challenge for the world's food security it also poses a threat to food production. Water shortages are expected to increase in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Germany, especially in the summer months. The increased water shortages greatly impact crop yields, requiring artificial irrigation to compensate for the lack of water. Moreover, extreme weather events such as heavy rain, hail, or mild winters that cause late frosts can cause crop failures.

Against this background, knowing the soil's carbon content is critical. Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon sinks. Their organic matter determines how well they can sequester carbon; after all, together with forests and oceans, they are among the most important global sinks of CO₂. The carbon content of soil not only provides information about its impact on the environment but also has a significant influence on its fertility. This is why many research projects have been launched to calculate the quantity of carbon sequestered by agricultural land for the purpose of deriving measures for its cultivation.