To recover arid and salty areas our company has developed a series of organic-based recultivants. They help to bring the land back to environmental standard, protect it from destruction and get it back to agricultural production.
It is common for a humanity to believe that we are the masters of nature, that we have control over everything, that the useful properties of the Earth are infinite, and we can use them forever. But a thoughtless attitude towards natural wealth often turns into a tragedy. With large territories available, the area of cropland suitable for growing crops and grazing is rapidly shrinking.
Such consumer’s attitude towards nature poses a threat of complete chemicalization of soil, hunger, loss of drinking and technical water resources.
In order to bring the land back to environmental standard, protect it from destruction and get it back to agricultural production, our company has developed a series of organic-based recultivants (trademark AViTA®) to recover arid and salty areas.
What’s the point of recultivation?
Our main challenge was to perform the measures on recultivating the lands affected by natural disasters and human activities, and the possibility to bring their condition to an environmental standard in a short period of time, compared to natural opportunities. We are ready to share these solutions with our customers.
The nature’s mechanisms for soil recovery are very limited, especially if they are complicated by such factors as salinity, water shortages and soil chemicalization due to the thoughtless use of mineral fertilizers. It takes years or decades for such lands to recover, then desertification occurs, and they are withdrawn from agricultural use.
Technology for Detoxifying Saline Soil
This technology belongs to agriculture and can be used to obtain funds, for detoxification of saline soils and recultivation of arid soils for agricultural purposes. AViTA® humic recultivant contains a complex of humic and fulvic acids, as well as chemically related mineral complexes derived from fermented bird droppings.
Detoxification method of saline soil and recultivation of agricultural soils is based on the application of AViTA® recultivant in effective quantities. The use of this technology allows preventing the plants from absorbing various soluble salts contained in soil, reducing their concentrations and ensuring the development of water-holding capacity of soil, ultimately increasing its fertility. Depending on the composition of salts in soil, several main types of salinization are distinguished:
- chloride salinization of soils with excessive content of sodium chloride and magnesium chloride (NaCl, MgCl);
- sulphate salinization of soils with accumulation of sodium sulphate and magnesium sulphate (МgЅО4, СаЅО4, Na2SO4);
- soda (carbonate) salinization of soils with excess sodium hydrogen carbonate or other sodium salts (NaHCO3), NaSO3).
In terms of harmfulness to flora, the salts are divided into the most harmful (NaCO3, NaHCO3, NaCl), harmful (CaCl2, MgCl2, NaSO4) and less harmful (МgЅО4, СаЅО4).
AViTA® recultivants have an ability to form stable water-soluble compounds with salts, metal ions and molecules of organic compounds contained in the soil including those that pollute the environment. The product can participate in ionic exchange, absorption of harmful substances from soil as well as excess of sodium, calcium and magnesium present in saline soils. The use of recultivant gives good effect already in the first months of application on saline soils, as well as in detoxification of lands contaminated as a result of anthropogenic activity.
In the process of recultivating soils exposed to salinization, a special role is given to amelioratory methods and techniques, which can be considered independent, but more often they are used as a component in a complex of land recultivation activities. The main reasons for salinization of once fertile soils are:
- excessive saturation with mineral fertilizers;
- destruction of irrigation and drainage systems;
- inefficient use of water resources;
- growing demand for agricultural products.
This leads to an increased stress on abundant and excessive watering, which results in excess moisture flowing inland and merging with ground-mineralized water.
Water-soluble salts, driven by incoming moisture flows, migrate to the upper soil layers, where they settle. To prevent salinization of agricultural soils, irrigated land must not be moistened from surface layers, which have a high mineralization degree, but taken from deep wells, where the salt content is minimal. And the reason for plants death on saline soils is the high osmotic pressure of soil solution, which exceeds the pressure of enchylema, resulting in reduced water inflow into certain tissues, reduced synthesis and absorption of sugars, which leads to plants drying and death.
Use of AViTA® Recultivant on Saline Soil
For desalting saline soils, testing was performed on a saline area with a high content of magnesium, calcium and sodium salts. Soil pH-values in the tested areas were 8.8-9.4. 3% of humic recultivant is applied to the soil, in the amount of 3.5-12 tons of dry matter per hectare of soil, followed by treating the tested and reference areas using standard agricultural methods (e.g., cultivation). After that, the soil was kept moist for 10-15 days, using mulch compositions, and then salinity and pH-levels were measured.
While reference sites showed salt content decrease by 4-5% and pH – to 8.6, then on sites treated with the preparation, this decrease made 54-58%, and the average pH – to 7. As can be seen, salinity is significantly reduced. It should be noted that the above example refers to highly saline soil; in slightly saline areas the amount of recultivant can be reduced to 0.5%.
The next stage of activities is planting agricultural crops in the cultivated area, which should help to form a fertile soil layer, which creates a certain ecosystem capable of maintaining viability of recultivated soil. The leaders of plants in usefulness on saline soils: Alfalfa, Sorghum, Sinapis.
In our case, wheat was sown in the tested area, which yielded 5 times more than in the reference site.
Being engaged in recultivation of saline soils and biological activity on it, it is important to remember that it is a big, difficult and costly task. And maintaining viability of soil liable to salinization is a system of actions to be taken on a regular basis.