#UofG is a Leader in Soil Research

(The voice of Daihuru Gwadabe is heard. Outdoor footage of people sitting and standing outside homes. Cut to footage of Daihuru outside. White text in bottom right corner reads, “Daihuru Gwadabe, Farmer, Kano, Nigeria)

“Soil erosion affects our community and our families. It washes away our crops.”

(Solemn pensive music. White text over dry soil footage reads “Each year, an estimated 24 BILLION TONNES of fertile soil is lost due to erosion”)

(00:15 Gwadabe voice over. Footage of farmers tilling cut to Gwadabewalking)

“Our soil has a lot of problems. Because we are using it since our grandfather’s for over 100 years, it’s been tilled and the nutrients decreasing.”

(Voice of Thomas Farrell. Footage of Thomas walking through corn fields. White text in bottom right corner reads, “Thomas Farrell, Farmer, Ontario Canada. Cut to footage of a mechanical plow.)

“As the global population increases, we need to produce more that if we don’t look after our soils, going out another generation or two then we will really start to feel that our soils have become depleted.”

(Gwadabe’s voice. Footage of walking through field. White text reads, “Land degradation directly impacts the health and livelihoods of an estimated 1.5 billion people.”)

“That means low yield, harvest or even zero harvest or even zero harvest.”

(Voice over of Tek Prasad Adhikari. Footage of Tek walking in farms fields. White text in bottom left corner reads, “Tek Prasad Adhikari, Farmer, Panchkhal, Kavre, Nepal” Footage of Adhikari holding and examining soil)

(Speaking his local language – captions on screen read: “We can see that the rain has been remarkably decreased than how it used to be before. New kinds and types of disease and pests are proliferating.”)

(Voice of Gwadabe . Footage of Gwadabe holding and examining soil.)
“So there’s a very, very important need to improve the soil for the survival of human beings.”

(Pensive string music. Drone footage of farm fields. White text reads, “It takes 500 YEARS TO REPLACE 2.5CM of healthy topsoil”)

(Voice of Dr. Laura Van Eerd. Footage of University of Guelph campus buildings. Indoor lab footage. Cut to Laura speaking directly to camera standing outdoors in a field. In the bottom left corner white text reads Dr. Laura Van Eerd, Professor, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus. Cut to footage of graphs displayed on a computer, then a woman in a lab wearing a mask. Cut to farmer field drone footage. Cut to Tek examining fruit crops.)

“University of Guelph has a long tradition in soil science research. We’re diverse, we’re linked to the industry, we’re connected to governments, and we have the infrastructure to explore and innovate in soil science. Soil sustainability, is protecting the soil, preventing erosion, minimizing degradation.”

(Voice of Dr. Claudia Wagner-Riddle. Footage of children sitting outside. Cut to footage of hands holding soil with white text over top that reads, “One handful of healthy soil contains more MICRO-ORGANISMS than there are people living on earth.”)
“We want to leave soil for future generations.”

(Voice of Farrell. Outdoor footage of Farrell smelling soil.)

“Anytime you lose some of your soil, you’re essentially losing the medium in which you grow your crop.”

(Dr. Claudia Wagner-Riddle standing in a field speaking to the camera. White text in the bottom right corner reads, “Claudia Wagner-Riddle, Professor, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph” Cut to footage of students conducting research indoors and outdoors. Cut to overhead footage of a plow working on a field)

“The University of Guelph is ideally positioned to do this research. Because we have such an excellent intersection of different disciplines, all dedicated to improvement of agro-ecosystems, it’s not a matter of just one researchers dedicating time to try to solve them. We need multidisciplinary teams that include the breadth of the social sciences to biology to animal science, plant science, economics, soil sciences, we need these teams working together to come up with solutions that will lead to sustainable food production that minimizes the impact on the environment.”

(Dr. Kari Dunfield speaks to camera outdoors in a field. Cut to farmers working fields.)

“I think for every farm, there’s different soil management practices that can work, we need to kind of take a toolbox approach where different management practices can be integrated, minimizing tillage as much as possible, increasing the number of crops that you grow, adding things like cover crops, so that you don’t have any bare soil on the ground.”

(Voice of Dr. Inderjot Chahal, footage of a sign that reads University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs. Cut to lab footage. Cut to Inderjot speaking to camera in a lab setting. White text in bottom left corner reads, “Dr. Inderjot Chahal, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus”)

“Resilient cropping systems which can de-risk the growers and when we talk about resilience, it all comes back from that regenerative agriculture. So we are trying to identify the management practices which will be able to withstand those extreme weather events, which will be more resilient, which will be more sustainable.”

(Farrell speaks to camera standing outside near a building. Cut to research being conducted indoors and outdoors)

“It’s important that researchers are doing this kind of work, because they’re taking the risk for the farmers and providing the information to us.”

(Wagner-Riddle speaks to camera. Footage of research.)

“My research informs practices that farmers can use to decrease the environmental impact. It also informs policy.”

(Van Eerd speaks to camera in a field)

“The innovation that we have right here in Ontario, at the University of Guelph is leading globally.”

(Dunfield voice over footage of researchers in the lab.)

“I’m looking at things like how we can use better soil management practices to protect soil health.”

( Wagner-Riddle voice overlab footage. Cut to Wagner-Riddle speaking to camera standing in a field. Cut to overhead footage of cattle on a path.)

“Our next steps are really about conducting high level research, but also working together with the practitioners and listening to what is going on at the farm level.”

(Van Eerd speaking to camera. Cut to footage of farmer fields)

“I think the future of soil science is in problem solving. Looking at climate change, protecting our water resources, find ways that we can increase yields and increase production and also increase profitability.”

(Voice of Wagner-Riddle with footage of famers tending crops)

“By concentrating on making soils healthy. There’s great potential to revert some of the trends in terms of soil degradation, climate change, and decreased food security.”

(Voice of Gwadabe while he looks at crops. Footage of farm.)

“I’m proud to be a farmer is a very good business. I went to my children and my community to improve and adopt farming.”

(Voice of Farrell walking by farm equipment and footage of farm.)

“I have three young children which I would like to leave a farm for them in better shape than when I started.”

(Voice over of  Adhikari. Footage of Adhikari walking through farm fields and footage of farm work.)

“I think soil is the foremost important aspect for the healthy growth of the plant. Secondly, the environment is another important aspect. So, the soil quality is everything.”

Black screen with white text on top read, “Let’s improve soil health, together.” Footage of Adhikari, Gwadabe and Farrell’s faces. Cut to a white screen with the University of Guelph Logo and red text that reads “SOILS AT GUELPH” and then slides to “Improve Life” in black. “soilsatguelph.ca” is in the bottom right corner.