Agriculture

Agriculture is the biggest industry in Illinois. Our farms are rooted in rich prairie soils and feed America. But growing conditions are changing and soil loss is a real threat. Researchers are exploring how agriculture can adapt to remain profitable and keep growing now and in the future.  

Explore more

Maintain Soil Health and Prevent Soil Loss

Soil is more than just dirt; it is a vital component of our ecosystem. It provides nutrients for plants, supports biodiversity, and plays a crucial role in water filtration and carbon storage. Healthy soil is resilient and can better withstand environmental stresses.

Threats to soil health vary across different regions. As soil supports physical and economic systems across Illinois, degradation of this vital resource can cause devastating effects on Illinois communities. Our primary concern is erosion, or the removal of topsoil from the land surface through wind, water, or tillage. This loss of topsoil also causes the loss of nutrient-rich particles that feed our plants. Many factors influence a soil’s erosivity, or R-Factor, including how old the soil is, its carbon content, and its plant cover. 

How do cover crops help soil? 

There are a few practices to help keep soils in place. The first is to cover the soil. In practice, this looks like cover cropping or implementing perennial plant systems that constantly keep the soil in place. Covering bare soil with plants prevents damage from rain and drought, so the physical removal of the top layer does not occur. 

Cover crops are plants that are used before or after what is normally grown in a garden or field to extend the time living plants, and their root systems, are interacting with the soil. Cover crops decrease soil erosion, suppress weeds, reduce surface compaction, and store carbon in the soil. 

Read more about how soil carbon addresses climate resiliency for the future

What is carbon storage or sequestration? 

Not only does land cover like cover crops physically protect the soil from pelting rain and drying of the soil, but these practices also build long-term resilience of those soils through carbon storage or sequestration.

Carbon sequestration involves capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide in the soil. Living plants have root systems that interact with soil microbes, especially fungi. A specific type of fungi called mycorrhizae fungi works together with plant roots in a mutually beneficial way. Roots and mycorrhizae ooze carbon into the soil. The longer living plants are present, the more soil carbon that will be stored.

For the soil carbon to remain, tillage should be kept to a minimum or not done at all. Tillage adds oxygen to soil which allows soil microbes to decompose organic matter as a faster rate.

What are carbon markets? 

Carbon markets are an economic trading system that allows individuals or companies to buy carbon credits as a way to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. One carbon credit is equivalent to the reduction, sequestration, or avoidance of releasing one tonne of carbon dioxide, or an equal amount of another greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere. Practices such as wetland remediation, reforestation, and investment in renewable energy all can qualify for carbon credits. 

More about carbon markets: 

Cover Crops and Gardens

There is a lot of talk about the use of cover crops in agricultural settings. What about in gardens? Duane Friend discusses cover crop use in gardens, its benefits, and field demonstrations of its potential.