Soil Health is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a new approach to agriculture. Managing agroecosystems for healthy soils not only sustains what we have, but addresses root causes of societal problems. Soil health management systems regenerate soil function. Over the last decades the critical importance of applying principles of soil biology and interactions between soil biological, physical, and chemical processes in the implementation of soil health management systems, has gained significant recognition and understanding. Improving soil health on our nation’s agricultural lands will allow farmers and ranchers to simultaneously increase water quality, increase soil water availability, increase carbon sequestration, enhance resilience to extreme weather and pests, enhance nutrient cycling, provide wildlife habitat (including pollinators), enhance rural economic opportunity, decrease production risks, and meet the food production needs of a rapidly growing population on a shrinking available land base. Efforts to improve soil health will thus provide significant return on the nation’s conservation investment.
In 2014, this recognition and demand from stakeholders led to the initiation of the NRCS Soil Health Division. The purpose of the Soil Health Division is to provide leadership on the agency’s soil health policies, tools, assessments, programs, technology, training, and approaches used by staff, partners, and customers to facilitate the implementation of science-based, effective, economically viable soil health management systems on the nation’s diverse agricultural lands.
