What is Soil Health?
Soil health is the soil’s ability to sustain agricultural crop productivity while providing essential functions such as regulating water, filtering and buffering pollutants, and cycling nutrients without resulting in soil degradation or otherwise harming the environment. A long-term strategy to build soil health will foster more productive crops, improve water quality, create better resilience during extreme weather events, and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.
The basic principles of soil health, as detailed by the Minnesota Office for Soil Health, are:
- Keep the soil covered.
- Minimize disturbance.
- Keep living roots in the ground.
- Diversify rotations.
- Integrate livestock where possible.
BWSR’s Role
BWSR works with partner agencies to increase the usefulness of current soils data, promote practices that improve soil health, update soil surveys in the state, provide technical support and training to local governments, and provide grant opportunities.
Grant Programs
Soil Health Supplemental Staffing Grants
Purpose: The purpose of these competitive grants is to increase local SWCD capacity to oversee soil health initiatives and to ensure districts have local points of contact available to work with landowners on increasing utilization of soil health practices and systems that advance the principles of soil health.
Funding amount: $17.6 million
Status: 40 SWCDs are receiving soil health supplemental staffing grants. These awards were announced on April 9, 2024.
Awardee Map: Map of 2024 recipients
Soil Health Delivery Grants
Purpose: The purpose of these non-competitive grants is to support local efforts to raise awareness about soil health practices via outreach and education. These grants are flexible and allow for other activities such as increased staffing and practice implementation.
Funding amount: $6.4 million
Eligibility: Open to all Minnesota Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
Status: Request for Interest (RFI) opened May 28 and closed July 2
Soil Health Practices Grants
Purpose: The purpose of these grants is to leverage federal Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) awarded to BWSR in November 2023. Grant funding will focus primarily on practice implementation, with some funds available for technical and engineering assistance.
Funding amount: $25 million
Status: Grants are slated to be made available in late summer 2024.
Eligibility: Map of eligible districts
Minnesota Office for Soil Health
BWSR has partnered with the University of Minnesota's Water Resources Center (WRC) to establish the Minnesota Office for Soil Health, with the mission of building local expertise to promote soil health and soil and water conservation. Research and outreach will expand the tools and skills of Minnesota’s local conservation delivery community and promote understanding of the economic impacts of soil and water management practices.
The mission of the initiative is to protect and improve soil resources and water quality by developing the knowledge, skills and abilities of local experts to more effectively promote sustainable soil and land management. In particular, the initiative will emphasize the importance of soil health and the water quality and economic impacts of applied land and water management practices.
Farmers and other land managers are becoming more and more interested in practices that improve soil health. Soil health practices, such as reduced tillage and cover crops, have the potential to improve agricultural profitability by reducing input costs and increasing productivity. At the same time, they may help protect water resources by increasing the water holding capacity of soil and reducing the transport of pollutants to streams and lakes.
Since establishment in 2018, MOSH has contributed to NRCS Basics of Soil Health training, partnered with University of Minnesota Extension to present the annual Soil Management Summit, and delivered numerous educational talks to local farmers, conservation staff, and farm advisors around Minnesota. MOSH invited stakeholders to 2019 and 2020 Soil Health Forums, and regularly convenes stakeholders from UMN Extension and local government units to coordinate and increase soil health adoption.
Find out more about MOSH at mosh.umn.edu, and follow on Twitter @MNsoil.