There is food where there is agriculture, and there is agriculture where there is soil fertility

We can state with certainty, without fear of contradiction, that today the topic of soil fertility is central to agriculture.
Most farmers worldwide have long been experiencing the visible and harmful effects of a generalized loss of fertility in cultivated soils, caused by multiple, interconnected factors, some of which are described below.
To reverse this trend, farming techniques—and even more so farmers’ mindset—must change and focus on optimizing the soil–plant relationship rather than the well-being of the crop alone.

For those who studied agronomy, it is common to recite almost like a litany the three concepts of soil fertility: chemical, physical, and microbiological.

The three aspects of soil fertility are well known. However, in recent times, both academically and practically, as well as in communication, the importance attributed to each of these three types of fertility has changed.

Until the late 20th century, the focus was mainly on chemical fertility and its replenishment or increase. Since the early 2000s, attention to physical and biological fertility—previously often taken for granted—has grown steadily. Moreover, research activity on biological fertility has boomed in recent decades, deepening topics related to soil microbiota and its relationship with cultivated plants, their nutritional status, and health.

Different crops require different soils to perform well, but they all need healthy soils, where an optimal balance among the three forms of fertility exists.

Adequate yields and production quality have always been essential goals for professional agriculture (as opposed to subsistence farming), but today even more so, given the changing economic context and the exponential growth of the global population.

However, climate change and soil degradation (and thus loss of fertility) due to intensive exploitation, salinization, and desertification work against these goals. Added to this is the loss of agricultural land to other human activities.

We do not intend to delve into topics that might seem out of context, but it is worth remembering that, today as in the past, food security is a right for everyone, though not everywhere it is a reality.

As stated in February 2025 by FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu during the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Johannesburg, food security is a matter of peace, stability, and human dignity. Qu recalled that about 730 million people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger, 2.3 billion face food insecurity, and 2.8 billion lack access to a healthy diet.

Conflicts, climate change, and depletion of cultivated soils underlie this inability to guarantee food security for much of the global population, which in turn drives migration phenomena and global tensions.

This scenario highlights the need to preserve existing fertility and increase it wherever possible. This is not only about enriching soils with nutrients but adopting a broader vision of regeneration, encompassing all three components of fertility.

Indeed, regenerative agriculture, widely discussed today, identifies soil health care as one of its cornerstones.

All farming techniques can impact soil fertility and health to varying degrees, but among them, fertilization ranks first.

The question to ask is: how should we fertilize our crops to meet their nutritional needs while contributing to soil regeneration and overall fertility improvement?

For Agribios (and for regenerative agriculture), the key lies in organic matter, particularly:

Acting this way improves yield and production quality and increases organic carbon storage in soils, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Choosing the right products to nourish crops, along with adopting less depleting farming practices, is crucial to boosting crop productivity while respecting soil health. Soil improvers, organic fertilizers, and organo-mineral fertilizers, provided they are made from high-quality organic matrices and possibly inoculated with beneficial microorganisms, are effective technical tools for achieving this goal.

They also contribute to circular economy in agriculture, as the organic matrices used are often by-products of various production chains.
The rational use of organic-based fertilizers also helps maximize the efficiency of applied nutrient units, reducing waste and unnecessary costs for farmers while cutting environmental pollution from nutrient losses through evaporation and leaching.