Soil health hinges more on how agricultural land is managed than whether the farming system is organic or conventional, according to a new study showing that farms with more intensive management have lower overall soil functionality. The findings argue that optimizing yield whilst lowering management intensity – what the authors call "productive deintensification" – may be a more sustainable path forward that could boost soil health across diverse farming practices.
Soils play a critical role in supporting both human well-being and ecological stability. In agricultural soils, efforts to maximize crop yields can come at the cost of essential soil functions such as water retention and nutrient cycling. Intensive farming practices often degrade soil health by reducing organic carbon content and biodiversity, which are key to maintaining soil functionality.
Organic farming is often considered to be more sustainable than conventional farming and is seen as a way to enhance soil health. However, benefits to soil health are likely driven by specific management practices – such as crop diversification, reduced tillage, and manure use – rather than by the overarching organic or conventional system used.
Given the complexity of real-world farming, simply comparing these systems is insufficient. According to the authors, measuring management intensity as a continuous variable offers a more accurate and useful framework for promoting sustainable agriculture.