What Morrow plots showed to the world in 1876 and still being maintained as the historical site the world has forgotten.

During my visit to UIUC to Professor Jack Widholm the pioneer scientist in crop science ,its heartening to see the Morrow plots. What makes me sad is to realize what American perceived in 1876 the world is forgetting now . It is written there that

"University of Illinois

The Morrow Plots

America's oldest experimental field established in 1876.

Results demonstrate that soil quality is a vital component of agricultural productivity. "



Food productivity is going down due to poor soil health conditions in developing world. Soil structure and soil composition is adversely affected very easily in tropical climate under high temperature conditions.



Most of developing countries of Africa, Asia and Middle East and also in advanced countries the departments of soil science which test the soil health are microscopic. It’s hard to find such departments in conventional university systems and sometimes soil science is not taken seriously in the sense that a molecular biologist or geneticist or a biotechnologist has better chances of going up the ladder and get funding in millions of dollars for his projects while its really difficult to get funding for soil health and improvement.

In Germany Institute of Plant Nutrition Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany is leading institution in this field.

The fact people forget that it was noted almost over 135 years ago that soil could improve plant yield four fold.

All efforts of molecular biology have to be realized in the field only. Once the field conditions are not good even the best possible genomes cant give good yields.

Its time to realize what Morrow realized almost 135 years ago is realized now. Genetic engineering is good and essential but soil health has to be monitored and things can’t be taken for granted.

Poor water quality all over the world due to over population and over exploitation is affecting the health of the soil globally. We are worried about environment but we are not worried about losing our soil productivity due to erosion, secondary salinity development due to over exploitation and interruptions of nutrient cycles.

It’s time to think old mythology that soil is mother of all creatures on the earth.

Improve soil conditions and productivity will increase.

It applies for food , oil , fiber crops as well as bio-fuel and biomass crops for which billions of dollars are pumped on researches world wide. However unless the basic knowledge of type of plants, type of soils and type of climate are taken in totality lab to land transfer of findings will be difficult if not impossible.