{"id":124013,"date":"2018-10-09T02:47:41","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T00:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/study-in-ethiopia-links-healthy-soils-to-more-nutritious-cereals-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2018-10-09T02:47:41","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T00:47:41","slug":"study-in-ethiopia-links-healthy-soils-to-more-nutritious-cereals-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/study-in-ethiopia-links-healthy-soils-to-more-nutritious-cereals-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Study in Ethiopia links healthy soils to more nutritious cereals | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Study in Ethiopia links healthy soils to more nutritious cereals<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Farmers in Ethiopia evaluate traits of wheat varieties.<\/span> Flickr\/J.van de Gevel<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Large fields, predictable rainfall and favourable temperatures have meant that farmers in Arsi Negele, a town in southeastern Ethiopia, have benefited from good crop yields. Their production of wheat and maize, two of the main food staples in Ethiopia, have also increased over time. <\/p>\n

But there are worrying indicators that the increased yield and calories haven\u2019t translated into sufficient vitamins and minerals. This deficiency is known as \u201chidden hunger\u201d and Ethiopia is classed as having \u201csevere\u201d levels. <\/p>\n

Less than 20% of children in the area have a diet that\u2019s diverse enough to meet their nutritional needs. This is much lower than the 40-70% typically found in other developing countries, like Tanzania. Protein and zinc deficiencies are of particular concern and contribute to a variety of health issues like stunted growth in early years and poor immunity. <\/p>\n

One of the causes of this is that, because there\u2019s a need to feed more people, global trends prioritise high yielding cereal species and varieties as the paper refers mainly to different species over lower-yielding \u2013 but more nutritious \u2013 crops and animal products. <\/p>\n

While it\u2019s known that soils can contribute to nutrients in crops, the studies are very few and mostly look at horticultural crops \u2013 like vegetables, fruits and flowers. Little has been done to quantify the links between soil organic matter \u2013 plant and animal residue \u2013 and crop nutrient content, particularly in cereals.<\/p>\n

Our study is one of the first to reveal the link between soil organic matter and crop nutrient content for a staple crop in a developing country. We found that wheat grown around Arsi Negele had more nutrients, like zinc and protein, when grown on soils rich in organic matter. <\/p>\n

Increasing organic matter by 1% was associated with an increase in zinc equivalent to meet the daily needs of 0.2 additional people per hectare and an increase in protein equivalent to meeting the daily needs of 0.1 additional people per hectare. These modest increases in soil organic matter contribute a small, but important, increase in nutrients found in wheat. <\/p>\n

Although these nutrient increases are not enough to address hidden hunger on their own, they reveal how healthy soils are an additional tool \u2013 alongside diet diversity and the biofortification of food \u2013 for fighting malnutrition. <\/p>\n

Nutrient levels<\/h2>\n

Twenty seven farms, of varying distances from the forest, were selected. We measured; soil organic matter content, wheat yield, and wheat nutrient composition.<\/p>\n

We found that wheat grown in areas closer to the forest, which are especially high in organic matter (about 1% higher) due to decomposing trees and plants and enriched with manure of livestock grazed in the forest, had higher levels of nutrients \u2013 like zinc and protein. <\/p>\n

This is good news for Ethiopia, where low-cost soil management approaches may be more accessible to farmers than expensive mineral fertilisers which I\u2019ve found to cost about $ 30 USD per bag \u2013 about 4 bags are needed per hectare. As a result, less than 30kg of mineral nitrogen fertiliser are used per hectare of wheat in our study area \u2013 when it should be at least twice that amount.<\/p>\n

Some of the techniques that improve soil organic matter include: <\/p>\n