Assessment of a Deep Burial Destoning System of Agrarian Soils Alternative to the Stone Removal and On-Site Crushing

Abstract

Among its many functions, soil represents the active natural medium for plant growth. Different soils have various structural characteristics, that correspond to their qualitative parameters in terms of physical, chemical, and biological fertility. Because of their extremely slow formation processes, soils are also a non-renewable resource, easily subject to degradative processes. Among their mineral constituents many agrarian soils present, in addition to the fine earth, variable percentages of coarse fractions in their arable layer, which interfere with the crop growth, requiring more energy to manage cultivation operations, and damaging the machinery up to making its use impractical. In these conditions, it becomes necessary to proceed with the soil destoning, particularly for the management of Precision Farming techniques. Depending on the percentages, sizes and types of coarse fractions, the soil destoning systems concern: (i) the collection and removal of stones from the field, (ii) the on-site stones crushing, and (iii) the stone burial. In this article, we report the first evaluation of a deep burial destoning system carried out in the CREA Experimental Center of Treviglio (Italy). With the described reclamation system, a significant long-term improvement of soil quality in a 600 mm thick arable layer was achieved; avoiding the shortcomings of the destoning systems as commonly applied in agricultural lands.

Keywords

• soil quality
• stoniness
• soil destoning systems
• precision farming