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Soil Regeneration Increases Crop Nutrients, Antioxidants and Adaptive Responses MOJ Food Processing & Technology Research Article Open Access Soil regeneration increases crop nutrients, antioxidants and adaptive responses Abstract Volume 6 Issue 2 - 2018 Since 1981, the Rodale Farming Systems Trial (RFST) differentiated organic (org) from conventional (con) farming systems showing that org systems can have a transformative Paul Reed Hepperly,1 Emmanual Omondi,2 potential to increase soil quality. On the other hand, throughout the RFST history, con Rita Seidel1 system never increased soil organic carbon (SOC) nor soil nitrogen, (SON). During the 1Department of plant pathology, The Rodale Institute, USA first 5 years, org systems were increased significantly (p = 0.05) for SOC and SON. Organic 2Director of the Farming Systems Trial, The Rodale Institute, farming systems do not employ org restricted inputs i.e. synthetic fertilizers and pesticides USA instead they relied on biologically based inputs such as cover crops, extended legume rotation and organic amendment. Conventional system used recommended fertilizer and Correspondence: Paul Reed Hepperly, Department of plant herbicide without biological based inputs. Both Org systems, significantly increased both pathology, The Rodale Institute, Kutztown, 611 Siegfriedale Road, SOC and SON but were not statistically different from each other. Increased SOC and Pennsylvania, USA, Email [email protected] SON opened a research venue supporting testing hypotheses of how soil improvement can affect i) crop nutrition ii) disease reactions and iii) adaptability. Unique org and con Received: March 06, 2018 | Published: March 26, 2018 system legacies allowed effective SOC/SON differentiations and comparison. Different soil levels were compared under the same location and same genotypes eliminated confounding factors to better evaluate the effect of the differentiated soil condition. Over 22 plus years of systematic trial conventional maize and soybean farming failed to yield any statistical increase in either soil carbon or nitrogen from their original values SOC 1.8 to 2.0% SON 0.28 (p=0.05 ns); on the other hand, the organic farming legacies showed statistically significant with both SOC and SON increased (p=0.05) (soil carbon 2.3 to 2.6% and soil nitrogen 0.33 to 0.35%). Oats Avena sativa L. Ogle, 2003, maize Zea mays L. 2005, jalapeno peppers Capsicum annum L. Campell, tomato Solanum lycopersicum and carrots Daucus sativa form sp carota 2004 and 2005 were used as soil improvement bioindicators. In addition to SOC and SON improvement, crop mineral foliar nutrients were found highly significantly improved (p=0.01) under the organic agricultural system legacy. Organic system mineral increase varied from 8% for potassium to 74% for boron with a mean of 32.3% organic advantage over conventional soil legacy control from foliar analysis in oats 2003 significant differences were also found in oat grain composition for mineral contents. Crop mineral contents from org differentiated soils were significantly elevated (p=0.01) compared to the conventional soil legacy baseline. In addition to improved SOC/SON, crop mineral nutrients in oats, the antioxidant levels of tomato fruit, carrot roots and jalapeno pepper fruits were all significantly higher in organic legacy 18% (in jalapeno pepper) to 36% organic advantage (p=0.05) compared to conventional system legacy. Disease assessments were tested for how soil improvement would affect crop health/adaptability. Disease were not constraining in all environment/year combinations. Nevertheless, when present and constraining, disease reactions were consistently superior under org compared to a con soil legacy. In the org legacy significant reductions in disease were found for jalapeno pepper virus complex incidence, carrot splitting percent and carrot leaf blight and tomato late blight severities. Results confirm of a positive association between soil improvement, crop nutrient content, antioxidant, plant adaptability, and negative association with disease incidence and severity. Soil organic matter appears to have wide pleiotrophic effects deserving additional study for their detailed modes of action. Keywords: differentiated organic, conventional, history, synthetic fertilizers, disease, differentiations, pleiotrophic effects Abbreviations: RFST, rodale farming systems trial; SOC, soil that threatens our global food security. These researchers suggest the organic carbon deficit of current global food system is 18.7, 5.1 and 38.8 kg/ha/yr for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium respectively. Paul Clayton2 Introduction in Health Defense (2004) cites a 1994 United States Department of Agriculture survey showing 68, 55, 54, 37, 34, 32, 31 and 17% of those Some researchers have sounded an alarm concerning declining surveyed were lacking the daily minimum allowances of vitamins E, nutritional contents of crop products. They have suggested that A, B6, C, B4, B1, B2 and B12 respectively. Doctor Clayton concluded nutrient and vitamin decline coincide with the growth of centralized in his lifelong human research that multiple vitamin and mineral industrialized farming methods and these are leading to the growing deficiencies are more common than not and he challenged the levels nutritional threat of crop, human and animal deficiencies. According of minimal daily allowance as insufficient to optimize human health. to Tan et al.1 nutrient depletion is a widespread global phenomenon Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com MOJ Food Process Technol. 2018;6(2):196–203. 196 © 2018 Hepperly et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Copyright: Soil regeneration increases crop nutrients, antioxidants and adaptive responses ©2018 Hepperly et al. 197 The concern over crop nutritional decline has focused on the post effects of our agricultural practices may well relate to malnourishment World War 2 agriculture systems with high dependence on synthetic which seems growing in both technologically advanced and chemical fertilizers that substitute for organic amendment. An example developing human societies. of decline includes the Oklahoma State University Macgruder Among the changes in farming systems the higher nutritional long term wheat plots in which soil organic matter has plummeted intensity crops such as grain legume and legume forages have been from almost 4% at the trial inception to about 1% after 100 years mostly eliminated from many of our current crop rotations. These of cropping with similar results from Sandborn and Morrow plots of soil improving crop components have been largely replaced by higher Univ. of Missouri and Illinois, respectively. In addition the prevalent yielding but less nutritious cereal grains which are more exhaustive of intensive use of synthetic pesticides combine with the shortening and the soil resource. Under harvest removals without nutrient complete elimination of crop rotations, cover cropping, mixed crop and animal replacement intensive mining of minerals can occur. This mining of farming systems and use of organic amendments. Monoculture crop nutrients is governed by greater harvest removals of the lower quality farming with high synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use has become but higher yielding preferred grains. According to our fertilizer the norm. experts incomplete nutrient replacement looms large in deteriorating Using nitrogen isotope tracer studies, Harris et al.3 showed that soil conditions. legume nitrogen was better retained in the soil with less loss from Removing legumes in our cropping systems can undermine the soil from a legume source compared to conventional ammoniated biological nitrogen fixation. When synthetic nitrogen sources are fertilizer. In addition substantially more nitrogen was retained in applied to legumes the harvest of nitrogen from the air is atrophied. In microbial biomass from the legume system. addition to dwindling of the biological nitrogen capacity application Winchester et al.4 showed the patterns of birth defects in Indiana of nitrogen as ammoniated fertilize can stimulate more rapid decay fluctuated according to nitrates known to stimulate oxidant activity soil organic matter resulting in both lowering both carbon and and atrazine a known pseudo-estrogen. Levels of nitrate and atrazine in nitrogen in the soil. Another deleterious result of fertilizer is its role in water in Indiana fluctuated seasonally according to maize production promoting increased soil acidity. Acidity in soils can promote nutrient practices. The applications of y atrazine herbicide and ammoniated losses, soil aging and toxicity from manganese, aluminum and iron fertilizer applications are targeted in maize planting season. can be stimulated by the fertilization practices. In contrast the RFST Conscious dependence on more uniform genetics and concentration depends on legumes as crops and cover crops to increase and maintain of intensive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides has been called soil quality without any synthetic fertilizer or pesticide applications. green revolution agriculture. Some researchers suggest these practices Donald R Davis et al.,9 a research associate with the Biochemical are derailing natural cycling of nutrients and curtailing on-farm Institute at the University of Texas, Austin, analyzed data gathered biodiversity. In organic farming biological diversity is treasured for its by the USDA in 1950
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