Soil Summit Confirms NZ Farmer Experience

Soil Summit Confirms NZ Farmer Experience

Sustainable farming practices that increase soil carbon have been identified as critical in helping address growing international concerns over world soil quality and food production, according to leading international soil scientists meeting in Sydney earlier this month.  The Soil Carbon Sequestration Summit, held at the University of Sydney, concluded that soil security needed to have a high priority alongside climate change – with soil degradation and loss of topsoil and nutrients posing a significant threat. .

Farm business management specialist Peter Floyd, who attended a workshop that followed the three-day global soil carbon summit, says there was also good news – the scientists noted that sustainable farming and soil carbon sequestration provide a win-win solution to these issues.

“Speakers at the workshop emphasised the importance of choosing farming practices that increase the quantity of carbon in soils,” he says.

“Their view is that this would have the twin effects of increasing production levels and reducing carbon emissions, and would underpin more sustainable food production at the same time as mitigating climate change.” 

Floyd believes that the findings validate the experiences of his farmer clients in New Zealand who are actively practising pastoral carbon farming and who have increased soil carbon significantly in the past two years.

“They confirmed that it is now timely to benchmark soil carbon levels on farms so that carbon farming management can be applied and its effects measured, especially profitability.  We know the sustainable land management practices needed, and applying them correctly should lead to increased quality and quantity of production and better products for human consumption,” he says.

“At the workshop we were told that soils are in trouble right around the world and that assuring soil security must now be the prime focus for action.  This means stemming the losses of soil carbon and nutrients so that humanity’s capacity to feed itself is maintained and enhanced.”

 “Pastoral carbon farming is the way to achieve that on New Zealand farms as long as measures are in place to ensure that it is done profitably.”

Floyd is planning a nationwide series of free seminars during March and April to discuss with farmers how best to measure the profitability of changes to soil management in conventional, organic, biological or mixed systems. Anyone interested in hosting or being invited to these seminars should contact him on 0800 433 276 or efarming@ecogent.biz.

Dates and venues will be advised by email soon and will be available on the website www.ecogent.biz.

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