Portal de Cartagena
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The Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) has joined the global initiative for the conservation and monitoring of soil health 'fields4ever', in which research centers, scientists and farmers from Europe, Asia, Africa and America participate.
The research group Management, Use and Recovery of Soils and Waters (GARSA) of the UPCT is developing a project to measure the effect of intercropping in horticulture and thus increase soil productivity and ecosystem services, particularly in broccoli and beans, says Raúl Zornoza, researcher Ramón y Cajal. The project developed by the UPCT is carried out on the Tomás Ferro farm of the School of Agronomists.
In these areas, Eva Lloret, Virginia Sánchez Navarro and Raúl Zornoza are evaluating the effectiveness of associating broad beans with broccoli to increase fertility and soil quality and thus improve productivity with a reduction in the use of fertilizers, water and plant protection products.The work will be carried out for three years.
The researchers will work in three cultivation cycles, which combine different broccoli cultivation patterns associated with the broad bean, in alternate rows or combined within the same row, clarifies Zornoza, from the Department of Agronomic Engineering. "We are going to focus on studying the evolution of the fungal and bacterial communities in the soil, so important to increase the level of nutrients in the soil and reduce the incidence of pathogenic organisms," adds the researcher. The objective is to evaluate if the crop combination selects beneficial microorganisms that can reduce the use of fertilizers and phytosanitaries by being more active in the soil.
In this sense, the management of soil biodiversity is one of the most promising strategies and the ones that are currently working the most to reduce the use of external inputs, reducing the negative environmental impact. This work is in line with other European projects in which the GARSA research group is involved, such as Diverfarming, SoildiverAgro or Sprint.The Fields4ever project is promoted by the biotechnology company Biome Makers, based in California and Valladolid, and funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission.
It aims to analyze nearly half a million hectares worldwide for 18 months with four stated objectives: to unravel the health of the soil in agricultural fields and restore its health, sequester 0.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions , reduce the loss of nutrients to the environment by 2,300 tons and save one million metric tons from soil erosion.Among other projects, researchers from Switzerland are analyzing what factors influence the attributes of the microbial community in vineyards and cereal.
In Kenya, Biodiversity International (CIAT) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture have started two trials with the aim of improving the quality and harvest of key crops in the African country.Raúl Zornoza, recognized this year at the UPCT as the best researcher for his activity in R + D + i projects recognized in competitive public calls and for his prolific scientific production of high quality and impact, investigates lines related to soil quality, dynamics of organic matter, soil biology / biochemistry and sustainable soil management. In the image, Virgina Sánchez, one of the people in charge together with Zornoza and Lloret, in the cultivation that is being carried out in the Tomás Ferro farm
Source: UPCT
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