Status and Priorities of Soil Management in Japan

Kazuyuki Yagi

National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan

GSP Technical Workshop “Managing Living Soils” 5-7 December 2012, FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy

Japan: Geography and Climate Japan has a total of 6,852 islands extending along the Pacific

coast of East Asia, lies between latitudes 24º-46ºN. The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate, but varies

greatly from north to south. Pacific summer monsoon brings warm and humid, while Siberian winter monsoon brings cold weather. The average winter temperature in Japan is 5.1 ºC and the average summer temperature is 25.2 ºC . About 66% of Japan’s land is covered with forests, and 12%

with agricultural lands.

Japan: Distribution of Major Soils

B. Peat soil D. Andosol

H. Red-yellow soil

I. Brown forest soil

F. Fluvic soil

Japan: Distributions of Soil Types in Crop Lands

Paddy

Upland Crop

Grass land

2.81 M ha

Gley soils(Fluvisols)

16%

Gleyic Andosols(Gleic Andosols)

6%

Others

11%

Others 9%

Others6%

Andosols

10%Brown Forest soils (Cambisols)

3%

3%2%

Others

4%

Orchard

1.29 M ha

0.69 M ha

0.44 M ha

19%

Brown Lowland soils (Fluvisols)

3%

Gray Lowland soils(Fluvisols, Gleysols)

Andosols 6%

Brown Forestsoils (Cambisols) 2%

3%

Brown Lowland soils (Fluvisols)

Brown Forest soils (Cambisols)

Andosols

Japan: Priorities of Soil Management

Soil fertility management − Sustainability of soil fertility − Soil management for quality and quantity of products

Environmental assessment − Soil management for eco-farming − Contamination of pollutants (heavy metal, organic

pollutants, radionuclides, etc.) − Soil C sequestration and GHG emissions

Soil information for food security Capacity building and education

Regional

National

Japan: Research-Policy-Land Users Network

Prefectural Institutes &

Experimental Stations

Academic Societies

JSSSPN, etc.

Cabinet Office &

Other Ministries

Extension Stations

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry

and Fisheries (MAFF)

Prefectural Governments

Associations of Producers

Land Users

Research Policy

National Institutes for Agriculture &

Forestry NIAES, NARO, FFPRI, others

Universities

History of National Soil Survey Programs in Japanese Agricultural Land (1953-1978)

・Soil Survey for Improving Fertilizer application (1953-1961)

・ Fundamental Soil Survey for Soil Fertility Conservation (1959-1978)

Mainly in paddy field, about 200,000 pedons were surveyed.

Mainly in upland field, the survey density was 500m.

Summaries of Pedon dataset (47 prefectures) Cultivated soil maps (1:50,000)

Digitalized and updated cultivated soil maps (1: 50,000)

Benchmarked soil dataset (about 20,000sites)

Cultivated soil maps (1:50,000)

・Soil Survey for Improving Fertilizer application ・ Fundamental Soil Survey for Soil Fertility Conservation

Benchmarked soil pedon database

Digital soil map

Digitalized soil inventory

Updating soil-land map

Urban sprawl impacts on fertile soils

Site information

・Site ・Latitude Longitude ・Soil type ・Sampling date others

Activity data

・Soil treatment ・Fertilizer application ・Crop rotation ・Irrigation/Drainage others

Soil profile description

・Depth of horizons ・Color ・Structure others

Soil properties

pH, EC, Soil texture, C and N content, Bulk density, available P, CEC, Ex-cations, pF, Solid-liquid-gaseous phase, Hydraulic conductivity, others

Location of stationary monitoring sites.

About 20,000 monitoring sites. 5-year-interval (Since 1979)

History of National Soil Survey Programs in Japanese Agricultural Land (1979-1999)

Basic Soil - Environment Monitoring

land use

greenhousepastureorcharduplandpaddy

Availa

ble

Phosp

hate

(P

2O

5m

g/100g)

800

600

400

200

0

1979-

1984-

1989-

1994-

1998

Paddy Upland Orchard Pasture Greenhouse

Avai

labl

e P

This soil database has been used for creating various agro-environmental indicators

Soil Erodibility (K) factor Map

Application of soil inventory in Japanese agricultural land 1

Soil Carbon Stock Map

Radioactive Cs Concentration map

(Aug. 2011)

Available Water Content

Soil Nitrogen Stock Map

Soil Temperature Map

Agro-environmental indicators

Long-Term Experiments in Japan

○ Since 1975, the MAFF has conducted long-term experiments with continuous organic matter application under typical soil type and cropping system of each prefecture (over 150 sites in total), which demonstrated that soil carbon stock increased through organic matter application such as compost.

○ Example of long-term experiment (Gray Lowland Soil; upland)

化学肥料単用区

稲わらたい肥0.25 t区

稲わらたい肥0.75 t区

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

（連用年数）

（全炭素(%)）Total C (%)

Years

Plot with Chemical Fertilizer Only

Plot with Rice Straw Compost (2.5t/ha/year)

Plot with Rice Straw Compost (7.5t/ha/year)

Data：”Basic Survey of Soil Environment (Benchmark Survey)” Yamaguchi Pref. Agricultural Research Institute. Figure for a year is the three-year average including the previous and the next year to that year.

Long-Term Experiments in Japan

Change of Rice Production

Straw removed 5-10 t/ha manure

T. Ota, NARO (2011)

Straw removed 10-20 t/ha manure

Rice yield at no manure plot (g/m2) Rice yield at no manure plot (g/m2)

Ric

e yi

eld

at m

anur

e pl

ot (g

/m2 )

Ric

e yi

eld

at m

anur

e pl

ot (g

/m2 )

How the “Soil Information Web Viewer” is to be used by prefecture office Fertilizer prescription program of Mie Prefecture

http://www.taihi.pref.mie.lg.jp/

Soil series group

Soil Information Web Viewer

Checking soil series group for soil testing fields

Andosols Wet Andosols Brown Forest soils Gray Lowland soils Gley soils Other Soil Groups

Cultivated Soil Map (1:50,0000)

0.0

2.0

4.0

0 5000 10000

Equ

ival

ent d

ose

rate

at 1

m h

eigh

t (μSv

h-1 )

Total radioactive Cs concentration in soil (Bq kg-1)

Relationship between dose rate and Cs concentration in soil Radioactive contamination

Fukushima nuclear accident

℗ The Wall Street Journal

0 – 0.25

Dose rate （μSv/h）

0.25 – 0.5

0.5 – 0.75

0.75 – 1.0

1.0 – 1.5

1.5 – 2.0

2.0 – 2.5

2.5 <

Fukushima Prefecture

Fukushima City

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council http://www.s.affrc.go.jp/docs/map/240323.htm

Radioactive Cs Map for Agricultural Lands

Japan: Challenges of Soil Management

To develop measures decreasing environmental risks, especially of climate change, nutrient imbalance, and contamination of radionuclides and heavy metal

To sustain soil fertility and productivity in the systems of environmentally-sound agricultural

To improve soil information system for public use To inherit soil knowledge to the next generation

Asia Soil Partnership (ASP)

February 2012: A regional conference on soil information was held in Nanjing, China, and the participants signed the Nanjing Communiqué to establish the “Asian Soil Partnership” to support the vision and mission of the Global Soil Partnership. September 2012: An ad-hoc meeting of ASP was organized in

Tsukuba, Japan, to define a road map that was consolidated through the Tsukuba Statement.

Conserve the environment by listening to wind, observing soil and thinking of our future