Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
3.2.4.4
Quantity
Organic matter accumulation in soils depends on three processes,
viz.
:
Plant production, which provides most of the inputs;
The capacity of soil to stabilise and store organic matter, which depends on soil
(i)
(ii)
depth, the amount and types of the clay and other minerals available to form stable
organo-mineral compounds; and
The rate of mineralisation through biological oxidation which is, in turn, determined
(iii)
by a suite of hierarchically-organised factors, namely, climate, certain soil properties
(clay type and amount, pH) and biological activities (especially of the larger organisms)
(Lavelle
et al.,
1993).
