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The world population grows, and in 2016, 108 million people were reported to be facing crisis level food insecurity or worse 1. In other words there is an absolute shortage of the available, annually produced foodstuffs. Farmers turn to traditional fertilisers to temporarily address the problem. However, over-fertilisation results in many cases to eutrophication and often leads to agricultural mis-management. Moreover, the use of fertilisers destabilises the pH value in the long term and valuable trace elements leave the soil 2.

Usual chemical fertilisers contain nutrients that exclusively benefit plants and do not replace the elements extracted from the soil by crops. As a result, the soil degrades after a certain time, the efficiency of the added chemical fertiliser decreases and the necessary demand for fertiliser increases to achieve the same yields. Increased fertiliser consumption aggravates the situation even more and is therefore economically counterproductive.

Demands:
I. Preventing arable soil from leaching,
II. Increasing the value of the farm land,
III. Respecting the environment by using an environmentally friendly product

Goal:
I. Low-cost soil melioration for high agricultural productivity to reprocess leached agricultural land,
II. This should be achieved by the increase in natural fertility and not by the increased use of conventional fertilisers.


In the Book of Agriculture the gardener of the emir of Toledo, Ibn Bassal, described in 1085 ten classes of soil. Each class with different life-sustaining capabilities according to the season of the year. 3 The Soval group researches solutions for the melioration of leached soil in agricultural areas, and follows Ibn Bassal's effort in achieving maximum outout without destroying soil and plants.


  1. FAO study, Global Report on Food Crises 2017 

  2. Data on Soil Degradation, World Resources Institute (International Soil Reference and Information Centre) 

  3. 1001 Inventions, The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilisation, Salim T.S. Al-Hassani, 2012 

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Soval – Better Use of Agricultural Land