Implementation of soil restoration strategies based on methodology for defining soil health farm types in EU

Soil health is a significant problem in agriculture which demands a tailor-made approach. The study aims to develop a methodological approach for farm typology construction in terms of soil health. Thus, the focus is on EU farms, which produce in the three key cropping systems - grassland, cereal-based rotation, and tree crops. It was applied principal component analysis based on which it was constructed four factors, related to soil health. This approach bridges soil health problems with socioeconomic, environmental, and technology assessments. Soil health farm typology determinations is an essential step in any realistic evaluation of constraints and opportunities that farmers face and helps develop appropriate technological solutions, policy interventions, and comprehensive environmental assessment. It can be used to describe the possibilities and implications at larger regional scales of new strategies for promoting soil restoring and best fertilization technologies in agriculture and its inclusion in agricultural and environmental policies. The farm typology in term of soil health was constructed applying two sequential multivariate techniques: principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis (CA).

Key words: soil health, farm typology, crops, tree crops, cereal-based rotation, grassland

Acknowledgement: The research is made under the project “Transforming Unsustainable management of soils in key agricultural systems in EU and China. Developing an integrated platform of alternatives to reverse soil degradation” – TUdi. This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation action under grant agreement No 101000224.