Do you know that soil is the most valuable resource for tea cultivation

What do you know about soil? Well, soil is a mixture of particles derived from earths crust and humus or organic matter. Soil is vital to sustain very existence of plant life. Soil formation is such a so slow process that it takes about 1000 years to build 1 inch (30 cm) of soil. But, it can get lost in no time due to man’s activities such as cultivation of crops.

You know that soil anchor the plants and provide necessary nutrients for its existence. Therefore, to sustain crop yield it is necessary to protect and manage soil properly. For a crop like tea, situated mostly among sloping lands in Sri Lanka, caring and nurturing of this valuable resource is a must. Compare to other tea growing countries our productivity, Yield per hectare (YPH) is low. Why? I think we have lost most of the fertile top soil which got eroded over the years and deposited in reservoirs, lowering their capacities as well, consequences of which is a different issue no doubt link to poor soil protection.

In addition, there has been a widespread declining yield trend in most of the plantations. This is attributed to various factors like climate change, man management, crop management, recurrent droughts etc etc. but not on soil management until recently. Where lowering of soil fertility is the common topic for all the ills. It is no secret that to maintain soil fertility one has to protect soil.

With this introductory remarks, let’s see how we can protect our soil in tea plantations from from the beginning so to speak. To see how it is done, please await for my next post to be published in due course.