Organic Farming and Its Influence on Soil Structure, Soil Microbial Communities, and Agricultural Productivity: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Organic farming is a sustainable method of production that allows the conservation of the environment and biological diversity as well as increasing agricultural productivity over the long-term and fostering soil health. Through minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and the encouragement of the management of ecological processes in agricultural landscapes via methods like composting, crop rotation, cover cropping, minimized tillage, and organic recycling of nutrients, organic farming methods significantly improve soil structure and enhance the soil microbial community, promoting soil stability and fertility. Increased soil aggregation, an increased amount of organic matter, increased water retention and increased carbon sequestration are the primary advantages of organic agricultural production systems. In addition organic farming stimulates soil microbial biomass and activities of beneficial soil microbial communities, particularly in enzyme activity, promoting the development of an agricultural system that encourages increased soil fertility, pest suppression and resistance to stresses. This extensive literature review seeks to present and assess the impact of organic agriculture on soil physical properties, microbial diversity and yield using data from anumber of meta- analyses and other literature sources that have examined organic farming compared with conventional systems across a number of studies. The evidence suggests that microbial populations tend to be greater and more active in organic soil, with increases in microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, phospholipids fatty acid and activity (based on enzyme assay), compared with conventional systems, and that rotation, legumes, organic amendments and climatic conditions will have major impacts on soil microbial populations and activity. However, there are also disadvantages of organic farming including low availability of nutrients in the short term, need for a higher labor force, high costs of production, difficulty of certifying systems and the drop in production during conversion phases. Compared with conventional farming systems the production might be less in the initial period of organic farming because nutrient release is slow and adjustments of the soil processes are gradual. Long term studies have shown that organic farming system could obtain yields equal to conventional farming system and improve the sustainability and resistance of the soil system against global environmental change. It is suggested that future improvements inorganic inputs, technologies of precision farming and the implementation of favorable agricultural policy could increase the position of organic farming system in establishing robust and sustainable agricultural systems with capability to solve world issues as food security, climate change and natural resource preservation.