Improved Soil Quality Goal of A&T Project

For Immediate Release
February 8, 2002

Greensboro, NC: Optimizing soil quality through managed agricultural practices is the goal of a new study at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

“Soil quality is a tremendous factor in the quality and quantity of agricultural output from a chosen area,” said Dr. Charles Raczkowski, an associate professor in A&T’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design. “Because of this, it is extremely important that farmers know how their practices affect soil quality and what they can do to produce at optimum levels while preserving and sometimes improving soil quality.”

Raczkowski also points out that soil quality has a direct effect on the ecology of an area, which can turn barren and prone to surface water runoff, if the right management practices are not in place.

For these reasons, Raczkowski is leading a study which will evaluate the soil physical changes associated with the five treatments implemented five years ago at the Sustainable Farming Systems Unit at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, located near Goldsboro.

Among the treatments Raczkowski will examine are an organic production system and an integrated crop/animal system. Each treatment examined was implemented to simulate both conventional and unconventional growing practices to yield data which could be applied to a number of situations.

With the help of student assistants at A&T’s Soil Physics Laboratory, Raczkowski will examine the effect of these systems on soil physical properties, such as bulk density, water infiltration, water characteristics, particle size distribution and total porosity.

“Soil physical properties influence how soils function in an ecosystem and how they can best be managed,” said Raczkowski. “The growth of many plant species and the movement of water and solutes over and through the soil are closely related to soil physical properties. We hope that this study will lead to improved soil for farmers and others involved in managing ecosystems.”

The study is funded by a grant from North Carolina State University, and also involves the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

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For more information, please contact Dr. Charles Raczkowski, NC A&T Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design, (336) 334-7779.