Digging and digging in the soil...the tiny earthworms contribute so much to global agricultural production!

Science Times reporter Wu Tong

A paper published in Nature Communications, a professional academic journal under Springer Nature, shows that earthworms may contribute more than 140 million tons of global food production each year, including 6.5% of grain production and 2.3% of bean production. The authors of the paper believe that establishing an agricultural ecological system for earthworm populations and overall soil diversity is very important for achieving sustainable agricultural goals.

Earthworms are one of the common groups of soil animals. They are both "consumers" and "creators" in the ecosystem. Earthworms contribute to the material cycle and energy transfer of soil processes through activities such as feeding, digestion, excretion, secretion and burrowing. They can have an important impact on multiple processes that determine soil fertility and are called "ecosystem engineers." All their activities in the soil are "transformations" of the soil environment.

Earthworms are the guardians of healthy soil, supporting plant growth and influencing soil structure, water acquisition, and organic matter circulation. Studies have shown that earthworms can promote plant production of growth hormones and help plants resist common soil pathogens. At present, the contribution of earthworms to global agricultural production has not been quantified, and research on this has been limited in the past.

To assess the impact of earthworms on the production of important crops worldwide, the authors and colleagues compared earthworm abundance, soil properties and crop production with previous agricultural data and found that earthworms contribute about 6.5% of grain production, including corn, rice, wheat and barley, and 2.3% of legume production, including soybeans, peas, chickpeas, lentils and alfalfa. The contribution of earthworms to agriculture is particularly high in the Southern Hemisphere, contributing 10% to grain production in sub-Saharan Africa and 8% to Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors believe that earthworms are an important driver of global food production.

These findings are among the first attempts to quantify the contribution of beneficial soil organisms to global agricultural production. The authors argue that ecological agro-management practices are needed to enhance the entire soil biota, including earthworms, to strengthen ecosystems for long-term sustainability and agricultural resilience.