New project Järki Pelto works for soil structure

New project Järki Pelto works for soil structure

BSAG has started a new project Järki Pelto, which aims to find practical solutions for improving the soil structure in clay soils. Soil structure has an impact on the production capacity of soil but also to the susceptibility to nutrient leakage. Clay soils are very common in Southwest Finland.  Järki Pelto project is a communication project by farmers to farmers, with the solid scientific background from researchers. The project will be done in Salo, Paimio and Sauvo, and it is active during 2017 – 2018.

During the project farmers will be offered information packages about soil science, focusing on the impact of soil structure on yield, biodiversity and nutrient leakage. There will be presentations from specialists, field trips and case examples. The aim is to initiate and increase dialogue between farmers and researchers.

There will be a team of local farmers who participated earlier to SaMaRa project, which gathered knowledge of clay soils. This team will now concentrate on disseminating the gathered information. The team consists of Olli-Pekka Ruponen (team leader), Peppi Laine, Reijo Niemi and Markus Junnila, all from Salo; Jarno Suominen and Janne Riski from Sauvo; Timo Lehtinen and Aki-Ville Valo from Raisio and Veli-Matti Jalli from Koski. The leader of the project is Eija Hagelberg from Baltic Sea Action Group.

The project participants are BSAG as a leader and the Nature and Game Management Trust as a partner. The cooperation partners are the municipalities of Salo, Paimio and Sauvo and the association Paimionjokiyhdistys. Järki Pelto is funded by the rural development programme of Mainland Finland, under the separate funding focusing on water protection and nutrient cycling.