IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ccsesa/309804.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On-farm Soil Health Assessment of Cover-cropping in Florida

Author

Listed:
  • Bhadha, Jehangir H.
  • Xu, Nan
  • Rabbany, Abul
  • Amgain, Naba R.
  • Capasso, Jay
  • Korus, Kevin
  • Swanson, Stewart

Abstract

Conventional cropping systems on sandy soils require continuous application of large amounts of external nutrients and irrigation water yet remain vulnerable to loses of these inputs. Within the state of Florida, need exists to provide farmers with economically viable alternatives that harness ecological processes and improve soil health and biodiversity. Cover crops are proving to be vital in the development of soil health. As part of this study we conducted a comprehensive on-farm assessment involving nine collaborative growers (ten farms) across the state; with each individual farm following its unique cover-cropping practice. Our goal was to shadow their practice and determine its effect on soil health indicators such as soil pH, bulk density (BD), maximum water holding capacity (MWHC), organic matter (OM), active carbon, cation exchange capacity, soil protein, Total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), total phosphorus (TP), Mehlich-3 P (M3P) and potassium (M3K). Compared to fallow, soil OM, MWHC, and soil protein showed increases in cover crop fields for most farms, which presented a positive change towards building up soil health. Although soil TKN level was significantly decreased due to cover crops, soil protein level building up over time was the most positive change for soil health. M3K decreased in cover-crop fields, which indicated that supplementary K would be necessary prior to planting subsequent cash crops.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhadha, Jehangir H. & Xu, Nan & Rabbany, Abul & Amgain, Naba R. & Capasso, Jay & Korus, Kevin & Swanson, Stewart, 2021. "On-farm Soil Health Assessment of Cover-cropping in Florida," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ccsesa:309804
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.309804
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/309804/files/60136c8f17ce5.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.309804?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xu, Nan & Bhadha, Jehangir H. & Rabbany, Abul & Swanson, Stewart, 2019. "Soil Health Assessment of Two Regenerative Farming Practices on Sandy Soils," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(4).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Keywords

      Crop Production/Industries;

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ccsesa:309804. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ccsenet.org/sar .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.