Subsoil Melioration with Organic Material—Principle, Technology and Yield Effects

Abstract

An increasing challenge for agriculture in times of climate change is to sustainably ensure or increase the yield capacity of crop production. Low-yielding sites are particularly at risk in this respect. One strategy to counteract is to promote the use of the subsoil. This article describes the technical procedure and development of an implement for stripe-wise subsoil melioration with application of compost in a layer of 30–60 cm. These stripes are each 30 cm wide and 70 cm apart. A technology has been developed for process, which allows the described procedure to be used over a large area. The melioration is carried out in one pass by an implement in an arrangement of 3 rows resulting in a working width of 3 m. A hopper on top of the implements frame includes an embedded hydraulic system to feed compost into the injection coulter. Results from 4-year field trials with standard crop rotations verify yield increases of up to 20% still 5 years after melioration. An overview of these trials and results will also be presented.

Keywords

• subsoil-management
• compost application
• yield increase
• yield security
• deep tillage