Growing a revolution - Bring our soil back to life (personal notes) - David R. Montgomery

4 minute read

Notes from the book

Chapter 1: Fertile ruins

Fertile cropland continues to shrink while the global population continues to rise.
Of all our world-changing inventions, the plow was, and remains, one of the most destructive. The plow makes land vulnerable to erosion by wind and rain.
No-till farming (zero tillage or direct drilling) decreases the amount of soil erosion, increase in the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil, soil retention of organic matter, and nutrient cycling.
We can using organic material (mulch, compost) to build fertile soil.

The facts of the role of plowing in agriculture is the most surprising thing that I discovered. It completely change my view of the method that I usually believe since my childhood.

Chapter 2: Myths of modern agriculture

Myth 1: Industrialized agrochemical agriculture feeds the world today: Family farms produce 80% of the world’s food. 72% of all farm worldwide are smaller than one hectare. While industrialized agriculture feeds the developed world, it does not feed humanity.
Myth 2: Industrialized agrochemical agriculture is more efficient: Larger famrs produce particular crops more cheaply, but they don’t produce more food overall.
Myth 3: Intensive agrochemical use will be neccessary to feed the world tomorrow: Adding fertilizers to already fertile soils does not really boost crop yields.

GM crops does not help reduce the herbicide and insecticide as they usually advertise.

Chapter 3: Roots of the underground economy

Soil organic matter didn’t feed plants. Plats obtained their carbon, and thus most of their mass from the air through the photosynthesis. –> Plants take carbon from the air.
Nitrogen makes up almost 80% of the Earth’s atmosphere. However, plants cannot grab the nitrogen as the do for carbon due to the stable triple bond between the two atoms in a molecule of nitrogen gas. This is why human synthesize ammonia to give plants the nitrogen they need for their growth.
Plants only consume half of the fertilizers that we feed them. The rest leach into groundwater because they are soluble by design. Much of it can end up in a river, reservoir and water well.
Plants use solar energy to combine carbon dioxide from air with hydrogen from water to make carbonhydrates (sugars).
Plants also get their nitrogen either indirectly from the air, with microial assistance from nitrogen-fixing bacteria living in specialized root nodules, or from nitrates they absorb through their roots. In the other way, plants release into the soil a variety of carbon-rich molecules they make, and which can account for more than a third of their photosynthetic output. In this manner, plant roots feed the fungi and bacteria that pull nutrients from the soil - from the crystalline structure of rock fragments and the organic matter.

It’s a much sophisicated form of line that beneath the ground of fertile soil. Everything has their role in that chain from the microbe, bacterial and their parnership with plants.

Chapter 4: The oldest problem

Chapter 5: Ditching the plow

Conservation agriculture is a system of farming that rests on three simple principles: (1) minimum disturbance of the soil; (2) growing over crops and retaining crop residue so taht the soil is always covered; and (3) use of diverse crop rotations.

“Leaving nonharvestable plant parts - crop residues - as a soil cover. This means that, after a crop is harvested, plant remains, wheter constalks or wheat stems, are not removed or burned”.
Cover crops planted in seasons between commercial crops and that are either mowed down or killed before or during subsequent soil as they decay.
Leave the leaves on the ground surface to mulch is the best way to reduce soil disturbance.
Keeping the soil covered in mulch helps it does not heat up so much and dry out, thus can retain more water.
Perennial grain could be a solution in no-till agriculture since it reduce the seeding needed annually as annual grains.

Chapter 6: Green manure

Crop residue could take away the weed opportunities to grow.
Precision fertilization (place a little fertilizer just a couple of inches off the side of the seed) could reduce the amount of fertilizer used in the field while gives the plants what they need to grow.
Complex rotations with irregular intervals can keep pests from adapting. (e.g. changing from corn-soybean to corn-corn-soybean-wheat-soybean).

Chapter 7: Developing solutions

In crop rotation, deep-rooted crop should follow a shallow one, high-biomass-producing crops should follow low-biomass ones. Adn a nutrient fixer should follow a nutrient scavenger.
The question of whether or not to use fertilizer: no-till combining with using crop cover could reduce fertilizer use more than 90%.
Mineral fertilizer provide a lot of major elements, but most lack micronutrients that plants also need. Organic matter has both the micronutrients and the major nutrients.

Chapter 8: The organic dilemma

If the soil is degraded, don’t start the transition by plating nitrogen-hungry corn. Instead, begin with a nitrogen-fixing crop, like soybeans.

Chapter 9: Carbon cowboys

The concept of intensively grazing: The key conceptual change was the combination of short-duration, intense grazing followed by a long recovery time. A higher stocking density cows produce a more uniform bite on the plants, more even trampling, better dung and urine distribution, and more uniform hoof impact on the soil.

Chapter 10: Invisible herds

Bacterial communities in biochar-rich soils differ from and are more diverse than those in char-free soil with the same mineral composition.
It makes far more sense to turn organic waste from households, villages, and cities into biochar than to dump it in landfills.

Chapter 11: Farming carbon

Changing cover crops that are suitable for each type of weather (rain, dry, etc.)
Plant cover crop right after havesting to restore necessary nutrient in soil.