Microbiome identification: Key to Sustainable Agricultural Policy

Policymakers are increasingly faced with complex decisions around the future of our agriculture. Important questions surrounding the sustainability of agricultural practices, the impact of agriculture on our natural areas; and at the same time how do we deal with climate change?

Sustainability and Circular Agriculture: how can agriculture become more sustainable by transitioning to a system where maximum recycling is achieved while minimizing environmental impact?

Climate goals: how can farms contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen emissions while becoming more resilient to the weather effects of climate change?

Biodiversity and soil health: how can agriculture help restore biodiversity and improve soil health?

The Soil is a living system

All these issues share a common factor: the soil.

The soil is a living system, resembling our intestines, which contains thousands of species of bacteria, archaea and fungi. These micro-organisms play a crucial role in processes such as the nitrogen cycle and protection of crops against diseases. When this system is disrupted, soil processes are hampered and the soil is prone to disease. The total of micro-organisms in the soil is called the microbiome. This microbiome forms the basis of almost all ecosystems on earth and shows strong differences by location, vegetation and use.

The under-recognised role of soil biology

So far, the important role of soil biology has been underestimated in agricultural and environmental policy. This offers new opportunities, because by looking at the soil microbiome, we can gain measurable and reproducible insights into the processes taking place in the soil, and thus provide action perspectives for a transition to circular, climate-resilient and regenerative agriculture.

Developing sustainable farming practices = preparing for the future

The new European Soil Health legislation highlights how essential healthy soils are for a sustainable future. The legislation aims to achieve the following by 2050:

  • Protect and improve soil fertility.
  • Reduce land degradation and erosion.
  • Increase soil organic matter content.
  • Identify and restore contaminated soils.
  • Regenerate degraded soils.
  • ​Jointly formulate a unified definition of healthy soils.

Bioclear earth provides policymakers with a powerful tool to address these challenges based on scientific evidence, thanks to microbiome identification and interpretation with Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology.

Using this method, we map the microbiological ‘fingerprint’ of soils in detail.  For example, recent research on livestock farms has shown that farming practices have a significant impact on the soil microbiome.

Contact us

As a policymaker or government agency, you may be interested in learning more about how microbiome data can contribute to developing and monitoring effective agricultural and sustainability policies. Please get in touch with Bioclear Earth for a detailed explanation of the possibilities and implications for your policy area.

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