OGeMOS Project: Developing and deploying an online tool for managing soil organic matter

Description

A healthy humic balance is essential to ensuring soil health, conservation, and fertility. This project will develop a versatile tool that will allow farmers and their consultants to simulate the impacts of agricultural practices on soil organic matter. It will help users develop a long-term perspective on soil organic matter conservation, while managing crops on a day-to-day basis. The tool will support field diagnostic efforts by projecting how alternative management practices—crop choice, green manures, removal of crop residues (straw, stems, etc.), and organic soil amendments of various kinds—can impact the humic balance over time.

Objective(s)

• Review the current knowledge on soil organic matter modelling.
• Reassess crop coefficients related to Québec’s main crops.
• Develop a modular and customizable open-source tool that can be used independently or integrated into other software.
• Provide the appropriate documentation for the platform developed.
• Develop target values for soil organic matter content for the different regions of Québec.
• Develop agricultural practice change scenarios.
• Use Québec’s agro-climatic records to verify the impacts of the soil and climate variable and the soil drainage class on changes in the soil’s organic matter content.