Imagine a farmer on an ordinary morning. Standing in the field, feeling the soil between the fingers, knowing perfectly well what would be best for it: perhaps more cover crops, less soil compaction, more perennial crops.

But the farmer also knows something else: high land prices, short-term lease agreements, demands from banks, contracts with buyers, regulations that keep changing, and a machinery fleet that can only be financed through high yields today, not ten years from now.

This is exactly the dilemma that researchers from Aarhus University examine in a new publication. And their conclusion is clear:

It is not the farmer as an individual who determines soil health. It is the system surrounding the farmer.

75% healthy soils by 2030: A target with hidden constraints

The EU has set the bar high: 75% of Europe’s soils must be healthy by 2030. But according to the researchers, we will not reach this goal if we continue to view soil condition solely as a matter of “better practices” by individual farmers.

Because decisions are not made in a vacuum. They depend on a set of conditions that have changed dramatically over recent decades.

The researchers identify five key factors that shape farmers’ room for manoeuvre and thus indirectly affect soil health:

1. Ownership and capital: When the land is not your own

More than half of the farmland in Western Europe is now leased, and institutional investors are playing an increasingly large role in land ownership. This leads to shorter time horizons and weaker incentives for long-term soil stewardship.

For farmers, the question becomes: Why invest in soil health if access to the land may be gone in five years?

2. Larger and more specialised farms: When responsibility becomes fragmented

Farms have grown larger, more mechanised and more specialised. This increases efficiency, but it can also create distance between the condition of the soil and those making the decisions.

Tasks are delegated, and contractors increasingly carry out core operations such as ploughing, sowing and fertilisation. As a result, the practical responsibility for the soil shifts away from the person who ultimately bears the legal and economic responsibility for it.

3. Economics and value chains: When pricing determines the future of the soil

On average, farmers receive only about a quarter of the price consumers pay for food. The rest is captured further along the value chain.

When supermarket chains, processing companies and financial actors set the direction, sustainability becomes a requirement, but not necessarily one that is financially rewarded.

The farmer is left with the task, but without the means.

4. New technology and data: Gold or debt?

Digital solutions and precision tools can significantly improve soil health, but they are expensive, require new skills and increase farmers’ dependence on technology providers.

At the same time, technology can push decision-making further away from the soil’s physical reality, when algorithms replace experience and direct observation.

5. Policy: When the rules do not reward what takes time

Although the EU’s agricultural policy accounts for roughly a third of the EU budget, support schemes still primarily reward short-term measures. Short funding periods and practice-based requirements make it difficult to invest in long-term solutions such as carbon sequestration, erosion protection and biodiversity.

A shared responsibility

The researchers are unequivocal: soil is not the responsibility of farmers alone, it is everyone’s responsibility. This study clearly shows that we need to change our perspective on protecting soil health.

It is not about making farmers choose the “right” solutions, but about making it possible for them to do so.

If we want healthy soils, this requires that:

• investors think in terms of long-term stewardship
• value chains reward genuine sustainability
• policymakers create stable, long-term frameworks
• technology developers integrate soil health into machinery design and ensure access to data
• and that society as a whole recognises the value of soil

A system shift, not a behaviour shift

The researchers conclude that soil health is a product of the entire food system. Responsibility must therefore be shared and so must the solutions.

If we succeed, we can create an agricultural system that is productive, resilient and sustainable.

More Information

Partners: Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University; Thünen Institute; University of Southern Denmark
Funding: The study is funded by the European Joint Programme for SOIL (EJP SOIL), supported by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. Grant agreement: 862695
Conflict of interest: None

Read more:
The publication “The Farmer and Soil Health: Understanding the Foundation for Sustainable Soil Management” is published in the European Journal of Soil Science. Authors: Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe, Lars Juhl Munkholm, Torsten Rødel Berg, Morten Graversgaard, Niklas Witt, Kasper Krabbe, Tiffanie Faye Stone, Bonnie Averbuch, Gerald Schwarz and Egon Bjørnshave Noe.

Contact:
Associate Professor Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe
Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University
Email: martinh.thorsoe@agro.au.dk

Communications Advisor:
Camilla Brodam Galacho
Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University
Phone: +45 93 52 21 36
Email: brodam@agro.au.dk