How farmers manage their soils is a stronger predictor of soil health than whether the land is organically- or conventionally-farmed, a new study finds. The recent Science paper showed that reduced tilling and increased cover cropping in particular led to better soil function on both organic and conventional farms.
Healthier soils—what the researchers describe as ‘multifunctional soils’ in their study—are crucial for growing healthy crops and locking away more carbon, among other things. In their study, the team of researchers define such soils as those that have a loose, crumbly structure, can regulate water flow and pathogens, and decompose organic matter quickly, among other things.
With this in mind, they went to 53 fields in the Netherlands, which were a mix of conventional and organic farms. At each one, they sampled the soil for these multifunctional qualities. In each location they also interviewed farmers to determine how they managed the land, asking for example how frequently and deeply they tilled the soil, and whether they rotated crops, retained crop residues on the land, and practiced cover-cropping.
From this, the study’s first major finding emerged: that across both conventional and organic farms, the more intensively farmers intervened in their soils, the lower the multifunctionality of those soils overall. Specifically, the researchers noted that on farms where regular tilling was the norm, the less healthy the soil was: these soils had slower decomposition rates, and were less able to regulate water flow, among other things.
On the other hand, the researchers found that on farms where soils were tilled infrequently, or not at all, and where farmers also practiced non-invasive management methods like cover cropping with grasses and legumes, the soil functionality was higher and therefore healthier. Interestingly, these healthier soils also contained higher levels of organic carbon, the researchers found. This suggests that leaving soil undisturbed and replenishing it with cover crops builds up matter, which might be what helps to boost its functionality. Higher soil organic carbon could also help sequester more carbon underground.
These results underscore that it’s really how farmers manage their soils directly that underpins how healthy they are. “Conversely, farming system categories [organic versus conventional] are not strong predictors of soil health,” says Kyle Mason-Jones, junior professor of soil microbial interactions at the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen in Germany, and corresponding author on the new study.
This suggests that some of the hallmarks of organic farming like reduced pesticides and curbing synthetic fertilizers might not influence soil functionality as much as expected. In fact, the study’s second key finding was that the soil multifunctionality was no greater on organic farms—a surprising discovery that went against the team’s expectations.
While the study did find that organic farms had lower management intensity on average, there is a huge diversity of ways that organic farms are run, and in many cases the soils on those farms are intensively-managed, Mason-Jones explains. This might have skewed the results and could explain why organic farming didn’t translate to better soil health across the board: “It is also possible to do very intense organic farming that doesn’t necessarily deliver soil health benefits,” he says.
Organic farming could potentially deliver many other benefits, such as reducing ecosystem pollution from pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. But looking solely at soil function, it appears the same benefits could be achieved on non-organic farms. This is the study’s key takeaway: farms don’t necessarily need to undergo years of conversion to organic production in order to have healthier soils. A lot can be achieved now, simply by putting better soil management measures in place, the researchers say.
Whether organic or not, a persistent question around lower-intervention farming measures is whether they can genuinely produce equivalent yields. While the study didn’t directly measure crop yields from the 53 farms, there was remote sensing as part of a larger multi-year research project, which measured ‘greenness levels’ as a proxy of plant productivity.
Tantalizing, this data revealed no negative effects on productivity, on the farms where lower-intensity methods were in play, says Mason-Jones. “This is something where more research is needed.”
Mason-Jones et. al. “Conventional and organic farms with more intensive management have lower soil functionality.” Science. 2025.
Image: Freepik
