Agriculture

Agricultural practices affect crop quality

The growing population requires large amounts of fresh food. Therefore, agriculture has long focussed on bulk productions and optimizing crop productivity. In order to achieve this, intensive landuse methods such as breeding, additional fertilizers and pesticides are used.

Source: IEDE NEWS, Powerhouse, Wikifarmer, blog.bluelab

Nowadays, excessive use of artificial inorganic fertilizers and crop protection products, such as pesticides, are common practice for most farmers. This excessive and intensive land use comes at an ecological cost and results in:

  • Simplification of soil food webs
  • Reduced microbial diversity leading to a loss of soil functions:
    • Less resilient to disturbances such as drought
    • Negatively affected nutrient and carbon cycling, and plant growth and health
  • This reduced microbial diversity also impacts plant nutritional quality and even the taste of the plants grown in this environment

Simultaneously, farmers are compelled to increase food production while generating reduced income, thereby encouraging the unsustainable utilization of soil resources.

Therefore, farmers need clear and reliable information to understand how they can economically benefit from changing their agricultural practices and also need tools to evaluate soil health. Through an interdisciplinary consortium including partners from universities, universities of applied sciences, research/knowledge institutes, farmers, consumers, and companies, we aim to deliver this essential information and evidence on the transmission of microbiomes between soils, crops and humans, as wel as its impacts.

“Microbially-optimized” food, cultivated in soils with optimized microbiomes, can have a significant influence on various aspects of food production, including product pricing, consumer well-being, farming business models, and consumer acceptance of such foods. Agrifood enterprises and retailers play a crucial role in facilitating sustainable business models throughout this transition, while consumer preferences for nutritious and cost-effective crops grown in healthy soils also influence the transition.

Aim of the project

The first aim of Soils2guts is to identify ways to manage and steer soil biodiversity to create high quality crops with diverse microbiomes while sustaining soil health and fertility within the limits of environmental boundaries.

Interested in participating?

We are still looking for farmers/farms for our sampling campaign of 2024.

Are you interested in our research? Please sign in and we will reach out to you as soon as possible.





    Experts in this field

    Partners from CML (Dr. S.E. Hannula, Prof. P.M. van Bodegom, Prof. J. W. Erisman), NIOO-KNAW (Dr. G.F.. Veen, Prof. W. H. van der Putten) and Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (Dr. E. Elferink, Dr. M. Sura-de Jong) have independently and collaboratively worked on soil management and steering soil biodiversity for sustainable crop production. They are leading experts in soil and plant biology and management. Dr. M. Sura-de Jong works on the link between soil, crop and human health, with a focus on crop (protein) nutrient quality. She has extensive knowledge of GMO’s and international experience in advising policymakers. Scientists from IBL (Prof. T.M. Bezemer, Dr. D.E. Rozen, Dr. Y. Choi) work at the interface of soils, plants and antagonists of plants such as insect pests. They are experts in plant microbiomes and plant production, quality, chemistry and health including targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches.

    Dr. S.E. Hannula

    • Universiteit Leiden, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)
    • Assistant Professor
    • Soil ecology, Soil microbiomes
    • s.e.hannula@cml.leidenuniv.nl

    Prof.dr. T.M. Bezemer

    • Universiteit Leiden, Institute of Biology (IBL)
    • Professor
    • Microbiomes, soil transplantation, plant-soil interactions
    • t.m.bezemer@biology.leidenuniv.nl

    Dr. D.E. Rozen

    • Universiteit Leiden, Institute of Biology (IBL)
    • Associate professor
    • Microbial ecology, microbiomes, plant-microbe interactions
    • d.e.rozen@biology.leidenuniv.nl

    Dr. Y.H. Choi

    • Universiteit Leiden, Institute of Biology (IBL)
    • Associate professor
    • Metabolomics, Natural products, Chemistry
    • y.h.choi@biology.leidenuniv.nl

    M. Elfferich (PhD)

    • Universiteit Leiden, Institute of Biology
    • Plant quality and plant-microbe interactions
    • m.elfferich@biology.leidenuniv.nl

    Prof.dr.ir. P.M. van Bodegom

    • Universiteit Leiden, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)
    • Professor
    • Microbial ecology, soil-plant interactions, system ecology
    • p.m.van.bodegom@cml.leidenuniv.nl

    Prof.dr.ing. J.W. Erisman

    • Universiteit Leiden, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)
    • Professor
    • Agricultural systems, Sustainable soil management
    • j.w.erisman@cml.leidenuniv.nl

    I. Siles Asaff (PhD)

    • Universiteit Leiden, Institute of Environmental Science (CML)
    • Soil Ecology, Plant-Soil Interactions
    • m.i.siles.asaff@cml.leidenuniv.nl

    Dr. G.F. Veen

    • Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)
    • Researcher
    • Soil microbiomes, soil functioning, carbon and nutrient cycling
    • C.Veen@nioo.knaw.nl

    Prof.dr.ir. W.H. van der Putten

    • Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)
    • Professor
    • Soil biodiversity, plant-soil interactions
    • W.vanderPutten@nioo.knaw.nl

    Dr. E. Elferink

    • Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences
    • Lector (professor of applied sciences)
    • Sustainable soil management
    • emiel.elferink@hvhl.nl

    Dr. M. Sura-de Jong

    • Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences
    • Lector (professor of applied sciences)
    • Soil, plant, gut microbiome, sustainable food production, protein transition
    • martina.sura@hvhl.nl

    P. Drost

    • Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences
    • Senior researcher
    • Agribusiness, circular economy, value chains

    Soils2guts

    A research targeted to ‘resolve tensions, develop and test solutions, overcome barriers and uncover new market opportunities’