Proposal Critique: Assessing Crop Management's Effect on Soil Quality

This report offers a comprehensive critique of a project proposal that investigates the effects of crop management practices, specifically conventional and organic farming, on the physical and biochemical quality of soil in winter wheat systems. The proposal, submitted as part of an MSc dissertation, outlines the research objectives, which include determining the impact of different farming practices on soil quality, assessing the effects of soil management on physical soil properties, and relating observed measurements to optimize management practices. The critique evaluates various elements of the proposal, including the title, introduction, objectives, hypothesis, proposed methods (data selection, soil testing, statistical analysis), work schedule, and budget. Strengths identified include well-defined objectives, a sensible budget, and a relevant literature review. Weaknesses include the absence of a risk management section and areas where the methodology could be improved. The analysis emphasizes the importance of the proposal in addressing the critical need for sustainable soil management and the potential of the research to provide valuable insights into optimizing agricultural practices for soil health. The report also provides recommendations for improvement and highlights the significance of the study in the context of increasing global food demands and environmental sustainability.

Running head: ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Proposal Critique
This essay is about assessing crop management’s effect on the soil physical as well as
biochemical quality in the winter wheat. The proposal aims in analyzing effect on crop
management over biochemical as well as physical quality of soil in the winter. The review
consists of sever elements: title, introduction, objectives, hypothesis, proposed methods such as
data selection, soil testing, statistical data analysis, work schedule and budget.1 Different
standards are used for evaluating every element for showing the strengths as well the weaknesses
along with how these could be improved.
The title of the paper gives information of scope as well as nature of this paper along with
question of this paper. The writer succeeded to explain first point through mentioning the effect
which crop management could have over biochemical as well as physical quality of soil.
The introduction of the paper is dependent mainly on using the relevant literature for
achieving few things. At first, providing significant overview of the importance of this topic.
Then, current knowledge for identifying gap in topic area as well as generating questions for
filing the gap. And finally, using current literature along with correct format of citation. Then
effective use of all the measurements provides a good introduction. The flow of introduction was
clear that made this clear for reader in understanding.2 The writer began with describing the
impact of food demand all over the world. In the introduction it is stated that the conventional
farmers of past few years has provided maximum of the food needs of the world with the
1 Agegnehu, G., Srivastava, A.K. and Bird, M.I., 2017. The role of biochar and biochar-compost in
improving soil quality and crop performance: A review. Applied soil ecology, 119, pp.156-170.
2 Akdemir, E., Anderson, S.H. and Udawatta, R.P., 2016. Influence of agroforestry buffers on soil
hydraulic properties relative to row crop management. Soil Science, 181(8), pp.368-376.

2ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC
management practices, which focuses on use of pesticides as well as fertilizer, monocultures and
less diverse rotations of crops. The writer stated that aim of farming practice is at intensification
as well as non-renewable resources’ use has been unsustainable to environment. There was
development of farming method which bans use of pesticides as well as synthetic fertilizers.
Under the introduction part, there is a definition of soil quality is provided also which
says that it is capacity of soil in functioning in ecosystem boundaries for sustaining biological
productivity, maintaining environmental quality as well as promoting health of animal and
plant.3 The writer termed soil quality as essential indicator for land management as well as gives
several functions of ecosystem to store and process water, recycling, waste’s assimilation, food’s
quality and production of fiber and food.
The paper provides relationship among quality of soil and agricultural sustainability by
its environmental quality. The writer wrote in the paper that there are several functions that are
performed by soil, which includes provides base for supporting growth of plant for ensuing
food’s sustainable production as well as enhance quality of soil.4 The writer also stated that there
is challenge for the soil scientists for meeting food demands as well as practices of balance
management and for protecting quality of soil and find optimum way for using resources of soil.
According to this proposal, assessment of soil quality should reflect physical, biological
and chemical properties, their processes along with their interactions. Depending on properties of
3 Bai, Z., Caspari, T., Gonzalez, M.R., Batjes, N.H., Mäder, P., Bünemann, E.K., de Goede, R.,
Brussaard, L., Xu, M., Ferreira, C.S.S. and Reintam, E., 2018. Effects of agricultural management
practices on soil quality: A review of long-term experiments for Europe and China. Agriculture,
ecosystems & environment, 265, pp.1-7.
4 Butler, D.M., Bates, G.E. and Inwood, S.E.E., 2016. Tillage system and cover crop management impacts
on soil quality and vegetable crop performance in organically managed production in
Tennessee. HortScience, 51(8), pp.1038-1044.

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such soil, soil’s quality could be known.5 Ultimate factor which affects quality of soil is land
manager. It is also indicated in the paper that quality of soil is enhanced by decisions of land use
as well as management which consider soil’s multiple functions as well as would be impaired by
the decisions which focus on only singe functions like crop productivity.
In the paper, based on the activities of management, soil quality could be measured by
using the indicators, changes in the indicators could be used for determining if quality of soil
changes in the management. While selecting biological indicators as well as datasets, soil’s
living component is composed by microbial communities which respond to chemical and
physical conditions of the soil making this good indicator.6 This is essential for variety of
microbial and biochemical analysis being used while considering management’s impact on
quality of soil.
It is also highlighted in the paper that no ideal index value is there, however quality
assessments of soil could be based upon framework which prioritizes goals of management,
identifies crucial soil function which are necessary to achieve the goals as well as selecting the
indicators which provide information that is useful with respect to functioning of specific soil.
Crop rotation as action of management improves the soil fertility, aeration and structure as
several root depths while seasons of cultivation affect the structure of soil. Fertility management
within organic farming depends on integrated long term approach instead of targeted short term
5 Çerçioğlu, Melis, Stephen H. Anderson, Ranjith P. Udawatta, and Salah Alagele. "Effect of cover crop
management on soil hydraulic properties." Geoderma 343 (2019): 247-253.
6 Dass, A., Chandra, S., Uphoff, N., Choudhary, A.K., Bhattacharyya, R. and Rana, K.S., 2017.
Agronomic fortification of rice grains with secondary and micronutrients under differing crop
management and soil moisture regimes in the north Indian Plains. Paddy and water environment, 15(4),
pp.745-760.

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solution that are common within conventional agriculture.7 Synthetic products’ use have
generally negative effect for quality of soil as these reduce soil’s ability to function. This is
mentioned in the paper that the organic products are used mainly for improving physical
properties of the soil. Hence, there is need for assessing crop rotation’s effect, fertility
management as well as crop protection practices on soil quality of conventionally managed and
organic farms.
Most crucial section in the paper for evaluating the proposal is objectives section. As
reviewer’s accuracy mainly depends on how it were specific within proposal. Objectives of
proposal were well written and specific. It was essential in knowing effect of practices of crop
management over quality of soil, considering need for sustainably maintaining soils’ quality for
the current as well as future generations. Overall aim for this proposal is assessing soil quality’s
biochemical indicators in organic as well as plots that are conventionally managed along with
identifying practices of optimal management.8 The writer used the general introduction for
stating the objectives. Firstly, determining effects of conventional as well as organic farming
practices over quality of soil by measuring as well as comparing biological and chemical
indicators. pH, available P and K, organic C, total N, C/N, SOM are the chemical indicators and
microbial functional diversity e.g. MicroResp™, soil basal respiration (SBR) and Nitrogen
mineralization are the biological indicators that were measured for this paper. Secondly,
investigation is done over effects of practices of soil management on physical properties of the
7 Folberth, C., Elliott, J., Müller, C., Balkovic, J., Chryssanthacopoulos, J., Izaurralde, R.C., Jones, C.D.,
Khabarov, N., Liu, W., Reddy, A. and Schmid, E., 2016. Uncertainties in global crop model frameworks:
effects of cultivar distribution, crop management and soil handling on crop yield
estimates. Biogeosciences Discussions, pp.1-30.
8 Herencia, J.F., 2018. Soil quality indicators in response to long-term cover crop management in a
Mediterranean organic olive system. Biological agriculture & horticulture, 34(4), pp.211-231.

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soil. And finally, for relating observed measurements for optimizing management practices. 9The
writer also used this for stating few questions such as,” how does soil quality measured under
organic management compare with conventional management, what is the optimum management
practice that will ensure the maintenance of soil quality, how do the values of biochemical
indicators compare with optimum values reported in scientific literature and do any of the soil
quality indicators have any form of correlation or relationship with one another?”
The hypothesis for this paper is that here no effect is there for different practices of crop
management over soil quality chemical, biological and physical indicators.
Purpose to write clear data method is for proving the ability for answering research
questions. This is like provide a path for the goals of the paper. The part of data collection was
simple though. However the style could have been better. In the data selection method,
experiment was said to be conducted at Nafferton Farm Factorial Systems Comparison (NFSC)
trial at the Nafferton Experimental Farm of University of Newcastle. There were three factors
such as crop rotation, fertility management as well as crop protection with comparison trails of
factorial systems.10 By combining the factors statistically gives around eight combinations of
treatment in a system. Nafferton farm’s field plots were replicated by four times, working on
overall 32plots.
As mentioned in the data selection method by writer, soil samples were to be collected
from wheat plot in June’s first week. There is also mention of collection of five soil cores for
9 Kumari, R., Singh, R. and Kumar, N., 2019. Effect of crop residue management on soil organic carbon,
and soil organic matter and crop yield: An overview.
10 McCallister, R. and Nowak, P., 2018. 11 Whole-Soil Knowledge and Management: A Foundation of
Soil Quality. Soil Quality and Soil Erosion, p.11.

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every plot and mixed immediately in plastic bucket for forming single composite sample for
every plot. The soil samples were to be sent for analysis to laboratory. These soil samples would
be tested under appropriate conditions for testing.
The writer also mentioned in the paper that many key indicators of soil quality would be
accessed. Wide range of physical, chemical as well as biological indicators for soil quality were
selected for allowing accurate comparison. The physical indicators used Bulk density (Standard
metal soil core) and soil aggregate stability.11 Biological indicators used soil functional diversity,
mineralisable N and Soil Organic Matter (SOM). Chemical indicators used pH, K and P.
Statistical analysis of the paper was precise. Statistical analysis, as per this paper, was to
be conducted by using mixed effect model of R within Statistical software. Both the interaction
and main effects were to be identified with the analysis of the variance P- values by using nmle
package of R within statistical software of R. Difference between several crop management were
to be tested by post-hoc TukeyHSD test by using R Statistics’ linear hypothesis.12 Also, in the
paper, standard deviation as well as standard errors of means were to be determined.
Schedule of work is crucial part of proposal as successful project meets the objectives of
the paper under the budget in limited period of time. Work plan is introduced by the writer
within the proposal. Soil sampling as well as soil drying were to be performed in first two weeks
of June, and would be followed by the laboratory analysis by end of month of July. This
11 Okeyo, J.M., Norton, J., Koala, S., Waswa, B., Kihara, J. and Bationo, A., 2016. Impact of reduced
tillage and crop residue management on soil properties and crop yields in a long-term trial in western
Kenya. Soil Research, 54(6), pp.719-729.
12 Patra, A.K., Mishra, K.N., Garnayak, L.M. and Mohanty, A.K., 2017. Influence of long-term organic
nutrient management on soil quality and crop productivity in rice (Oryza sativa)-potato (Solanum
tuberosum)-okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) cropping system under irrigated condition. Indian Journal of
Agronomy, 62(3), pp.268-274.

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dissertation would be submitted in the month of September as claimed by the writer. A gant chart
is provided in this paper where details of every task within this paper is provided.
The budget that is presented in this proposal is sensible and connected. Writer used
simple, clear table for presenting the expected budget. He also provided detailed information
about the analysis with estimated cost for each item. These budget calculations were based on the
32 samples of every biochemical analysis.13 The writer estimated travel costs of 15trips by bus to
the Nafferton farm. However, the writer said in his proposal that any costs exceeding allocated
500 pounds for the MSc projects would be covered by research account of his supervisor.
This is crucial for proposal for containing section for the risk assessment as well as risk
management. We could do it through identifying hazard’s level, followed by identification of
likelihood of the compliance as well as determining level of risk.14 How risks could be controlled
by using any one of tools of risk management like SWOT analysis. However, there is no section
of risk management in this proposal.
In conclusion, I think this is fair to say that the proposal was quite moderate as this had
mix among positives as well as negatives. The writer had several positives in the proposal: his
objectives, statistical analysis as well. Budget in this proposal was properly laid and reasonable
that gave general idea of direction of proposal. Outcomes that are produced from the proposal
could answer questions of research. Literature review was also with relevant information about
13 Rani, K., Sharma, P., Kumar, S., Wati, L., Kumar, R., Gurjar, D.S. and Kumar, D., 2019. Legumes for
Sustainable Soil and Crop Management. In Sustainable Management of Soil and Environment (pp. 193-
215). Springer, Singapore.
14 Seal, A., Bera, R., Chowdhury, R.R., Mukhopadhyay, K., Mukherjee, S. and Dolui, A.K., 2017.
Evaluation of an Organic Package of Practice Towards Green Gram Cultivation and Assessment of its
Effectiveness in Terms of Crop Sustainability and Soil Quality Development. Turkish Journal of
Agriculture-Food Science and Technology, 5(5), pp.536-545.

8ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC
the topic. However, few negatives could be highlighted in the proposal. We could better the
negatives through using appropriate process. The schedule of work looked professional as there
was attached of gant chart for planning the overall project. It is crucial in managing as well as
analyzing risks of this proposal also.

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References
Agegnehu, G., Srivastava, A.K. and Bird, M.I., 2017. The role of biochar and biochar-compost
in improving soil quality and crop performance: A review. Applied soil ecology, 119, pp.156-
170.
Akdemir, E., Anderson, S.H. and Udawatta, R.P., 2016. Influence of agroforestry buffers on soil
hydraulic properties relative to row crop management. Soil Science, 181(8), pp.368-376.
Bai, Z., Caspari, T., Gonzalez, M.R., Batjes, N.H., Mäder, P., Bünemann, E.K., de Goede, R.,
Brussaard, L., Xu, M., Ferreira, C.S.S. and Reintam, E., 2018. Effects of agricultural
management practices on soil quality: A review of long-term experiments for Europe and
China. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 265, pp.1-7.
Butler, D.M., Bates, G.E. and Inwood, S.E.E., 2016. Tillage system and cover crop management
impacts on soil quality and vegetable crop performance in organically managed production in
Tennessee. HortScience, 51(8), pp.1038-1044.
Çerçioğlu, Melis, Stephen H. Anderson, Ranjith P. Udawatta, and Salah Alagele. "Effect of
cover crop management on soil hydraulic properties." Geoderma 343 (2019): 247-253.
Dass, A., Chandra, S., Uphoff, N., Choudhary, A.K., Bhattacharyya, R. and Rana, K.S., 2017.
Agronomic fortification of rice grains with secondary and micronutrients under differing crop
management and soil moisture regimes in the north Indian Plains. Paddy and water
environment, 15(4), pp.745-760.
Folberth, C., Elliott, J., Müller, C., Balkovic, J., Chryssanthacopoulos, J., Izaurralde, R.C., Jones,
C.D., Khabarov, N., Liu, W., Reddy, A. and Schmid, E., 2016. Uncertainties in global crop

10ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC
model frameworks: effects of cultivar distribution, crop management and soil handling on crop
yield estimates. Biogeosciences Discussions, pp.1-30.
Herencia, J.F., 2018. Soil quality indicators in response to long-term cover crop management in a
Mediterranean organic olive system. Biological agriculture & horticulture, 34(4), pp.211-231.
Kumari, R., Singh, R. and Kumar, N., 2019. Effect of crop residue management on soil organic
carbon, and soil organic matter and crop yield: An overview.
McCallister, R. and Nowak, P., 2018. 11 Whole-Soil Knowledge and Management: A
Foundation of Soil Quality. Soil Quality and Soil Erosion, p.11.
Okeyo, J.M., Norton, J., Koala, S., Waswa, B., Kihara, J. and Bationo, A., 2016. Impact of
reduced tillage and crop residue management on soil properties and crop yields in a long-term
trial in western Kenya. Soil Research, 54(6), pp.719-729.
Patra, A.K., Mishra, K.N., Garnayak, L.M. and Mohanty, A.K., 2017. Influence of long-term
organic nutrient management on soil quality and crop productivity in rice (Oryza sativa)-potato
(Solanum tuberosum)-okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) cropping system under irrigated
condition. Indian Journal of Agronomy, 62(3), pp.268-274.
Rani, K., Sharma, P., Kumar, S., Wati, L., Kumar, R., Gurjar, D.S. and Kumar, D., 2019.
Legumes for Sustainable Soil and Crop Management. In Sustainable Management of Soil and
Environment (pp. 193-215). Springer, Singapore.
Seal, A., Bera, R., Chowdhury, R.R., Mukhopadhyay, K., Mukherjee, S. and Dolui, A.K., 2017.
Evaluation of an Organic Package of Practice Towards Green Gram Cultivation and Assessment

11ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC
of its Effectiveness in Terms of Crop Sustainability and Soil Quality Development. Turkish
Journal of Agriculture-Food Science and Technology, 5(5), pp.536-545.