John Morris – CEO Agrissentials NZ Ltd.

A Sanskrit text written around 1500 BC noted: “Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel and our shelter and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it”.

Soil is a magical substance, a living system that transforms the materials it encounters, making them available to plants. A handful of healthy soil contains more micro-organisms than all the people who have ever lived on earth.

To keep up with global demand for food, the UN estimates six million hectares of new farmland will be needed every year. Instead, 12 million hectares a year are lost through soil degradation. We wreck it then move on trashing rain forests and other precious habitat as we go.

The techniques of agro-chemical production that were supposed to feed the world now threaten us with malnutrition and starvation.

Nutrient deficient

In hindsight, the “chemical age” although initially looking good, has not done life on our planet any favours, in fact, it has demineralised our soils resulting in nutrient deficient food which in turn is increasing disease within all forms of life on our planet.

Here at Agrissentials, we are fervently pushing multi-mineral, microbial rich fertilisers to increase quality and production. Our system encourages worm life, essential for recycling all waste falling upon the land, back into top soil.

This is all part and parcel of Mother Natures’ system which has been operating on our planet for the past 460 million years.

Climate change

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation chose 2015 as the International Year of Soils. Soil is the largest pool of organic carbon, essential for mitigating and adapting climate change. In an era of water scarcity, soils are fundamental for its appropriate storage and distribution. Soil micro-organisms boost soil’s ability to absorb carbon and mitigate desertification.

According to FAO Director-General Jose Graziano de Silva it can take up to 1000 years to form one centimetre of topsoil. He urged investment in sustainable soil management, saying that would be cheaper than restoration. That’s incorrect.

Providing that degraded soil still contains some carbon, restoration would be cheaper and quicker. Agrissentials recipe of multi-mineral, microbial rich fertilisers is a formula for building humus (carbon) in the soil, and at the same time providing nutrient to plants, animals and people.

In trials in topsoil of 50mm deep on a clay base, in Ruawai, Dargaville, over an eight year period, the topsoil increased to a depth of 250mm and deeper in some areas of the dairy farm. It’s simple; our innovative soil building programme is based around Mother Natures’ recycling system. The more carbon, the deeper the topsoil, the stronger the water retention.

Call us today on 0800 THE KEY for a chat or a FREE INFO PACK, to find out how we can partner with you to find a better way of farming. Or call your best on earth rep Ken Pitts 027 502 3036 - Waikato/King Country. Chris Storm 021 738 609 - Bombay/Coromandel/Cambridge.