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A soil's chemical, physical, and biological properties dictate how well plants are likely to grow in it. Soils in the tropics are often exposed to intense sun and alternating periods of drought and high rainfall. Tropical soils are commonly degraded to the point where they can no longer sustain crop growth. However, there are inputs and strategies for restoring and maintaining soil health and productivity to be favorable for plant growth. ECHO encourages farmers never to give up hope on their soil and provides an array of options to help ameliorate poor soil conditions. As long as there is sufficient soil depth to accommodate crop roots, amendments and management practices can be adopted that transform soil into a substrate in which plants not only survive but thrive. Even naturally infertile soils and soils with very low water-holding capacity can become more productive with proper management and inputs over time. ECHO values organic matter retention, crop diversification, and minimal tillage for improving and maintaining soil health while minimizing reliance on capital-intensive inputs. ECHO’s resources and training cover topics focus on long-term soil health, covering topics such as farmer-made fertility inputs, green manure/cover cropping (GMCC), Foundations for Farming, mulching, composting, and many others, depending on the assets, context, and needs.



  1. This article is from ECHO Asia Note # 36. Soil chemical, physical, and biological properties range from those highly favorable to plant growth to those highly unfavorable to plant growth. It is rare—especially in the tropics—to find a soil in its natural state in which all properties are highly...
  2. Key Resource 01.01.1985 Green manure crops are crops that are [often times in North America] grown to be turned under to increase soil fertility. Leguminous green manure crops ( i.e., those which can make nitrogen fertilizers from atmospheric nitrogen) can offer small-scale Third World farmers a tremendous number of...
  3. This green manure cover crop selection tool is an interactive way to discover which varieties are appropriate for your unique situation. By changing the conditions and requirements a prioritized list of potentially appropriate crops is generated. Each of these plants can be sourced through the...
  4. Green manure cover crops (gmcc) are rapidly growing crops that cover and protect the soil. They are left on the soil surface as mulch or plowed under to enrich soil organic matter content. Legumes are prioritized for their ability to source atmospheric nitrogen through symbiosis with...
  5. 01.01.2012 Strong gradients of decreasing soil fertility are found in many regions of the world. Millions of smallholders are now facing this serious crisis which causes them lower crop yields, and many of these families also suffer from food insecurity. With the aim of promoting recovering soil fertility...
  6. 01.07.2011 This article is from ECHO Asia Note #10 Introduction During the late rainy season, the permanent hill fields that surround a cluster of hilltribe villages in the Chiang Dao district of northern Thailand radiate various hues of green. These verdant fields, belonging to ethnic Lisu, Lahu, Akha,...
  7. Key Resource 26.05.2017 By integrating legumes into cropping systems, small-scale farmers in low-resource settings can invest in the long-term health and resilience of their soils. Success or failure depends largely on choosing the right legume(s). With that in mind, this document presents insights on legume selection...
  8. 01.08.2017 The decline or even loss of soil fertility is the major challenge faced by more and more farmers around the world in general and especially those in sub-Saharan Africa. Many causes, mainly anthropogenic, are at the origin of this situation. Despite the massive use of chemical fertilizers through...
  9. Vegetable crops thrive in healthy soil. Farmers can improve the quality of their soil and provide nutrients for their plants by making and adding compost to their fields or planting beds. In this video produced by the World Vegetable Center for the VINESA project, researcherEmanuel Pallangyo...
  10. Key Resource 14.11.2012 The UNCCD estimates that over 250 million people are affected by land degradation, and about 1 billion people in over 100 countries are at risk. According to the WMO, 33% of the world’s land surface is vulnerable to land degradation.Degraded lands lead to overall reduced productivity and reduced...
  11. Key Resource 01.01.2012 Dawn Berkelaar, working with Dr. Martin Price and Danny Blank, featured this farming system in EDN 98. At that time, the technique was known as “Farming God’s Way” (FGW). Subsequently, the name was changed to “Foundations for Farming” (FFF); however, it continues to also be promoted as FGW. FGW...
  12. 01.08.2017 The technique was updated by a Zimbabwean farmer by the name of Brian Oldreive who, starting from the fact that God planned everything for the earth and concluding that man is at the source of the degradation of his environment. Agriculture is possible on the condition that we do it according to...
  13. 01.07.2013 Conservation agriculture (CA) has been promoted in East Africa through a number of initiatives over the past half year. In this article, we share what ECHO has gleaned from regional partners, in hopes that you can expand upon these successes and also promote further sharing on ECHO’s website....
  14. Key Resource 17.08.2016 Farmers and gardeners in semi-arid and arid regions of the world face two associated but separate problems, which limit the crops they can grow and the yield of these crops. The underlying problem is lack of rainfall needed for growing plants. The second is accumulation of salts in the root zone....
  15. 01.10.2019 Acidic soils are soils with a pH lower than 7. For most plants, having a pH between 6 and 7.5 is ideal (see table 1 for more exact numbers), but soils can become dangerous when their pH drops beneath 4.5. As the pH drops, aluminum becomes more soluble, toxifying the soil and harming the plants....
  16. This article is from ECHO Asia Note #17 Around the world, many agriculturists and gardeners are adopting soil amendments and fertilizers that are called bokashi. Bokashi is a Japanese word that has no good translation into English, according to Yukiko Oyanagi, a staffer with the Asian Rural...
  17. 06.02.2018 Speaker Bio: Dr. Tom Thompson is Associate Dean and Director of International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Professor of Agronomy at Virginia Tech. He earned B.S. , M.S. , and Ph.D. degrees in agronomy and soil science. He was an academic department head at two...
  18. Composting is the natural process of 'rotting' or decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms under controlled conditions. Raw organic materials such as crop residues, animal wastes, food garbage, some municipal wastes and suitable industrial wastes, enhance their suitability for...
  19. Foundations for Farming is an initiative aimed at bringing transformation to individuals, communities and nations through faithful and productive use of land. God has revealed a very simple conservation farming method with an implementation management teaching,which when applied help people to...
  20. Key Resource 20.01.2013 About 98% of agricultural production in the Sudano Sahelian region of West and Central Africa is based on rainfed crops. With a mean annual rainfall of 300 to 800 mm/year, the number of staple crops is very limited. It includes two grain crops: pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) for sandy soils...
  21. 20.04.2014 EDN 122 highlighted multi-purpose cowpea varieties with spreading vines that cover the soil. Below is an ECHO research update from South Africa relating our experience so far with a spreading cowpea variety intercropped with maize grown in a Foundations for Farming (FFF) system. “Living carpet”...
  22. Murindangabo, Yves Theoneste, Marek Kopecký, Petr Konvalina, Mohammad Ghorbani, Kristýna Perná, Thi Giang Nguyen, Jaroslav Bernas, Sadia Babar Baloch, Trong Nghia Hoang, Festus Onyebuchi Eze, and et al. 2023. "Quantitative Approaches in Assessing Soil Organic Matter Dynamics for Sustainable...