JSTOR Daily

Soil Health Can Positively Affect Farm Revenue

In a case study from Italy, GSEM Professor Salvatore Di Falco argues that crop biodiversity and soil fertility can positively influence both revenues and the resiliency of farm systems over time.

Erosion, climate change, and aggressive farming techniques have led to a worldwide degradation of soil health. To continue to feed a growing population, soil health will need to improve. Soil fertility is the soil’s ability to provide necessary habitat and nutrients for plants. In turn, healthy soil ideally should be both biodiverse and fertile.

Through a series of statistics, the research determined that soil health and crop biodiversity were leading factors in determining the economic and agricultural productivity of the farm. These findings were true regardless of the location of the farm.

The paper, “Soil fertility, crop biodiversity, and farmers' revenues: Evidence from Italy”, is co-authored with Elisavet Zoupanidou and published in Ambio (doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0812-7).

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