Background

Agricultural machines have increased in size and total mass in the last years and decades. This was primarily for economic and process-efficiency reasons. High specialized machinery requires high operating grades.

In adverse conditions, considerable negative changes in soil structure and in multiple soil functions occur. Basically soil functions are affected negatively by intensive agricultural field traffic. Management based negative changes in soil functions still have negative effects on economic and ecological efforts and benefits.

For using soils as a sustainable resource for bio-economic purposes BonaRes, agricultural land use should put a focus on sustainable protection and improvement of soil functions, while keeping the economic conditions in mind.

The SOILAssist Consortium wants to make an important contribution in this regard.