On the Way to Sustainable Peat-Free Soil Amendments

Abstract

Increasing global population and urbanization demands enhanced food and feed crop production, but due to several reasons, the areas of fertile agricultural lands are reducing worldwide. The market of growing substrates, soil amendments, and improvers still is based on peat extraction and processing. Due to peat's fossil origin, it can be considered environmentally unfriendly and unsustainable. Seeking peat-substituting materials is of crucial importance on a global scale and may become a vitally significant assignment for future generations. The necessity for peat-free soil amendments is also directed by the targets of circular economy and environmental sustainability goals, leading to reducing or abandoning the use of fossil resources and paying attention to waste utilization as secondary raw material. This paper aims to discuss general features of peat-free soil amendments as well as provide efforts into the use of secondary raw materials such as biomass ashes for the elaboration of peat-free soil-improving products. As a case example, may serve a description of the peat-free product made by rotary drum granulation from biomass fly ashes (energy production waste) and local freshwater sediments in a mass ratio mixture of 67:100, optimally applicable for soil improvement at a rate of 50 g L -1 . Besides, regional opportunities in Indonesia and Latvia are referred. It was concluded that peat-free soil amendment elaboration can be better implemented on a regional scale after assessing agricultural needs, soil specifics, and available raw material variety applicable as ingredients in soil-improving products.

Assessment of Soil Chemical Properties for Monitoring and Maintenance of Soil Fertility in Probolinggo, Indonesia

“…C-organic content reflects the amount of soil organic compound (SOC), another fertility factor [2, 68] and the most vital component resulting from interactions among producer, decomposer, and mineralogy [60,70], attributable to its ability to improve soil chemical, physical, and biological characteristics [10,28]. SOC is the key indicator of soil quality and agricultural sustainability [71].…”

“…A few features are viewed to be the causes of low N-total content in this study. The fact that tropical lands naturally contain less nitrogen has been proven by contrasting Java with Japan [75] since higher temperature accelerates organic matter decomposition [2,28]. Improper use of pesticides in agricultural practice not only eradicates nitrogengenerating bacteria [21,83] but also restrains the work of enzymes in the nitrogen cycle [23,24].…”

“…However, their use must be controlled so as not to cause damage to the soil and the environment [21-28, 33, 35]. Several researchers, among others [28,104], suggest using biomass ash to increase micronutrients, i.e. potassium, calcium, and magnesium.…”

“…Another cause is low irrigation water quality [19,20]. Pesticides are also liable for affecting microorganisms [21,22], particularly in enzymes entailing carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphor cycles [23,24] While fertilizers may be helpful, excessive use of chemical fertilizers reduce soil biodiversity and function [25,26] by triggering soil acidification and soil crusting that suppress the growth of organic matters [2, 27,28].…”

Land Suitability Assessment and Soil Organic Carbon Stocks as Two Keys for Achieving Sustainability of Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

“…Land under oil palm or other perennial crops should go through a long period per cycle, so long-term effects on soil capacity must be considered due to this type of land use (Guillaume et al, 2016;Hsiao-Hang et al, 2016). A monoculture in common practice, oil palm limits biodiversity and sources for soil organic matter stocks compared to the natural forest (Vincevica-Gaile et al, 2021). A study carried out by Rahman et al (2021) in an oil palm plantation in West Sumatra aimed at establishing the relationships between oil palm management practices and C-organic stock in soils.…”