Soil

Good soil is the key element of all cultivation. Good crop yields cannot be produced without well-managed, limed, drained, fluffy and fertile soil. Soil properties have impacts on cultivation techniques, erosion risk of parcels, susceptibility to nutrient leaching, need for fertilisation and liming, compaction risk, and amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

Coarse mineral soils and organic soil types are common in Finland. The soil type of about a third of Finland’s arable lands is clay. Clay soils are found especially in south-western Finland. In Lapland, North Ostrobothnia and Kainuu 20 to 40% of the cultivated area is peatland. Organic soils account for about a quarter of the cultivated area in Ostrobothnia and South Ostrobothnia. 

Soil particles are leached from arable lands in water, which degrades soil fertility. Erosion from arable lands caused by water is, on average, 600 kg/ha/year. Key factors influencing this include the slope gradient of the field, time and intensity of tilling, plant cover, plant species and soil type. In flat fields covered with grasses the average erosion is 100 kg/ha/year and in steep fields ploughed in the autumn it is 3,000 kg/ha/year.

In whole Finland the soil pH indicating the acidity of the topsoil is naturally low, which means that the soil is acid. Most plants prefer neutral or slightly acid soil. Soil acidity can be reduced by adding lime to the soil. During the past decade there has been some decrease in the use of agricultural lime.

A low nutrient content is characteristic to Finnish soils. Balanced nutrition is a key condition for the growth of plants. There is considerable regional variation in the trace element content of soils, and some degradation has been observed in the trace element status of arable lands. Soil fertility analyses show that, by international standards, the contents of easily soluble heavy metals, i.e. cadmium, lead, chromium and nickel, are very low.

Related links

Ministry of the Environment: EU Soil Strategy and regulation of soil health 

Finnish Food Authority, soil health (in Finnish)