# Soil Management

The regulation of soil management is less ruled by ISO standards but more by laws, policies, commitments, and recommendations. However, most soil management practices strongly depend on local soil characteristics and changing biological and physio-chemical conditions as well as variable meteorological phases. In this context, flexible management activities by farmers including a frame for open regulations are provided by lawmakers and agricultural agencies.

Overview of existing standards

# Association for Technologies and Structures in Agriculture (KTBL), Germany

The handbook “Operation Planning Agriculture 2014/15“[1] provides methodical information on soil management questions. For soil management sequences, key parameters for economic success and costs per unit agricultural products are listed. The Pocket Book Agriculture [2] provides, beside others, information on agricultural machines, prices for services and machines, and fertilizers, in numerous tables. Soil tillage tools and cropping systems in national contexts are provided. For example, no-till and non-turning cultivation are described in the “Definition of Soil Tillage and Management Systems”.

# Good Agricultural Practice (GAP)

GAP for soil management are national and international commitments and principles to reduce soil erosion and prevent soil functions such as soil fertility as a contribution to assure food security [3]. GAP was implemented in numerous national and international agricultural policies and laws.

# ICASA

# Data Standards for Agricultural Field Experiments and Production

Published by the International Consortium for Agricultural System Applications (ICASA), it was set-up for documenting agricultural field experiments and modeling crop growth and development. It is used in the tool of the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). The format of the data standard is XML and was assessed by the FAO [4].

# NRCS

# Natural Resources Conservation Service

This service provides numerous technical guidelines and conservation practice standards for soil and water conservation in agriculture. Examples are Terraces (Code 600), Grassed Waterways (Code 412), and No-Till (Code 329).

# Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

This EU-Policy was established in 1992 and revised in 2013. Today the key objectives of the CAP are an enhanced competitiveness, an improved sustainability and greater effectiveness of the agricultural sector in Europe. Since 2015 crop diversification rules, the maintenance of permanent grassland and areas set apart for ecological purposes are integrated in the first pillar of the agricultural policy as obligatory measures.

# Federal Soil Protection Act and the
Federal Soil Protection and Contaminated Sites Ordinance

This german law and regulation set general legal requirements for agriculture and soil management to tackle degradation threats to soil, e.g. for weather- and site adapted tillage operations. Both, the BBodSchG [5] (1998) and BBodSchV [6] (1999) do not go into detail but are frameworks for more detailed policies.

# WOCAT

# World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies

WOCAT is a global network. It supports decision-making processes for best management practices and sustainable land management and aims to unite the efforts in knowledge management and decision support for up-scaling sustainable land management among the different stakeholders.

# Soil Protection Review, UK

The review was introduced in 2010 as part of the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions [7]. The rule aims to maintain soil structure and organic matter and to prevent soil erosion and compaction.

Further regulations

Numerous laws and standards are defined by organizations and can be found in national and international records, e.g. for the US standard ASAE ASABE S578 provide rules for yield monitoring. Responsible for agricultural standards are e.g. the United States Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Library (USDA-NAL), and in international contexts the FAO (AIMS, Agricultural Information Management Standards).

# Conflicts and solutions

Some LTE in Germany were set-up within the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). In the GDR, so called “TGL standards” were applied for agricultural field experiments such as plant production (TGL 21168/12), experiment design (TGL 21168/02) and physical soil analysis (TGL 31222/01). Although TGL standards have expired in 1990, most legacy data from LTE in the former GDR were acquired by these standards. Even though these standards have expired, their former applications must be documented as metadata.