Farmer perceptions of soil quality and their relationship to management-sensitive soil parameters

A critical step in the quantification of soil quality (SQ) is the selection of SQ benchmarks. The benchmarks used in this study were SQ ratings made by 32 farmer collaborators representing a range of farming systems, scales of operation and geographic locations in the Mid-Atlantic region of USA. Soi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Renewable agriculture and food systems 2007-12, Vol.22 (4), p.271-281
Main Authors: Gruver, J.B., Weil, R.R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural management
Agricultural soils
Agrology
Benchmarks
Coefficient of variation
extractable soil C
farmer perceptions
Farmers
Farming systems
Fertility
microbial biomass
Moisture content
Organic farming
Organic matter
Perceptions
Quality
Research Papers
soil aggregation
Soil microorganisms
Soil organic matter
Soil quality
soil quality index
Soil samples
Soil science
Soil structure
Soil water
Soils
Sustainable agriculture
Tillage
Water availability
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Summary:A critical step in the quantification of soil quality (SQ) is the selection of SQ benchmarks. The benchmarks used in this study were SQ ratings made by 32 farmer collaborators representing a range of farming systems, scales of operation and geographic locations in the Mid-Atlantic region of USA. Soils from 45 pairs of sites identified by their farmers as having good and poor SQ were sampled over three seasons and analyzed for 19 soil parameters. Farmer judgments of SQ were based on many factors, most commonly soil organic matter, crop performance, soil water availability and erosion history. Selected individual soil parameters were normalized and integrated into an additive SQ index (SQI). Three additional indices were developed using discriminant analysis. The level of agreement between individual parameters, SQIs and farmer SQ ratings was evaluated using paired t-tests and mean percent difference values. The additive SQI was found to have the highest level of agreement with farmer SQ ratings (P
ISSN:1742-1705
1742-1713
DOI:10.1017/S1742170507001834