Impact of mechanical compaction on crop growth and sustainable agriculture

Highlights

● Soil compaction due to intensive agriculture threatens soil quality, crop growth, and food security.

● Study explores the factors contributing to compaction, aiming to develop effective mitigation methods.

● The goal is to reduce soil compaction, improve soil quality, boost crop yield and enhance agricultural sustainability.

● Innovations needed to address soil compaction in modern agriculture.

Abstract

With the development of agricultural technology to meet the growing demands of a rapidly increasing population and economic development, intensive agriculture practices have been widely adopted globally. However, this intensification has resulted in adverse consequences for soil structure due to intensified farming activities and increased usage of heavy farm machinery. Of particular concern is soil compaction, which leads to the degradation of physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. Soil compaction negatively impacts crop growth, reduces yields and poses a significant threat to food security and the overall sustainability of agricultural systems. Recognizing these challenges, this review aims to deepen understanding of the factors contributing to soil compaction and to develop effective mitigation strategies. By doing so, it is intended to attenuate the adverse impacts of soil compaction, improve soil structure, increase crop yield and ultimately enhance the sustainability of agricultural practices.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Soil compaction / mechanical compaction / bio-tillage / agricultural production

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Yunnan Science and Technology Program (202202AE090034) and the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFD1901002-5, 2022YFD1901504-2) to Kemo Jin. This study was supported by the Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2022YFQ0091) to Xiaoyan Tang. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31800378) and the National Science and Technology Basic Resources Survey Program of China (2019FY101304) to Baoru Sun. We are particularly grateful to Jing Dai (China Agricultural University) for her constructive suggestions for drafting this paper.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Zijian Long, Yifei Wang, Baoru Sun, Xiaoyan Tang, and Kemo Jin declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2024. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)