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250 delegates from 41 countries came together under the auspices of the International Soil Tillage Research Organization (ISTRO) for the 18th triennial conference.  Dr. Bruce Ball has just been appointed Chair of one of the ISTRO Working Groups, considering the assessment of soil condition through visual observations. The paper he and Brennan Soane worked on addressed reduced tillage and its effects on crop production and environment.    

Conference delegates were in no doubt that protecting our soil resources from future degradation is absolutely necessary to prevent the collapse of human civilization.  Not only does the degradation of soils put food production at risk, but the world’s climate is acutely balanced with how we treat soil.  Scarce freshwater resources are also threatened by the devastating effects of soil erosion.

According to ISTRO members, farmers must turn their minds towards 'conservation agriculture'.  In addition to minimum tillage systems they should be considering approaches such as maintaining crop residues at the soil surface to protect soils from wind and water erosion, direct seeding to sequester carbon in soil, controlled traffic to avoid the unseen effects of compaction, pasture-crop rotation to build agro ecosystem resilience, and cellulosic biofuel production to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.