Academician V.I.  Vernadsky has created the doctrine of living matters of the soil which can be briefly stated as follows:

• Soil and its fertility have appeared there through the living substance consisting of Millions of microorganisms and of soil animals, including branding worms. The plant receives all the chemical elements through them.

• Living substance occurs in the thin layer of soil, mostly in the range of 5 to 15 cm depth. This small layer is crucial in the history of Life on Land;

• Soil is the main source of carbon in the Nature. It contains ten times more carbon dioxide (a product of respiration of soil biota) than it is in the atmosphere;

• Dry chemical plants by 90% consist of carbohydrates, which are the main carrier of Solar Energy for any living thing on Earth.

• Above-ground parts of plants extract carbon dioxide from the air and convert it by photosynthesis into carbohydrates and tissues;

• Annually plant mass that goes into the soil and the digestive tract of animals decomposes, emitting about 28 billion tons of CO2 and energy, which is commensurate with all kinds of fuel extracted from the subsoil. The share of Land animals and people from this number falls to no more than 10%, the remaining 90% is recycled by soil biota, which biomass at 50% to 72% is earthworms.

Earthworms are the most numerous and important invertebrates on Earth. The total number of earthworms in field soil before the use of chemicals in agriculture ranged from 500 thousand to 20 million individuals per hectare, and biomass ranged from 250 to 10 thousand kg / ha. This is ten times more than the total weight of all terrestrial animals who are feeding on the equal area. Worms absorb along with soil an enormous amount of detritus, microbes, fungi, algae, protozoa, nematodes, etc.and digest them. They emit with their feces - coprolites - a lot of their own intestinal microflora, enzymes, vitamins, biologically active substances that inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms, also suppress the putrefactive processes, neutralize and decontaminate the soil.

The humic substances are formed in the gut of earthworms in the process of digesting of dead organic waste that is vegetable and animal origin. They differ on some of its properties, particularly in chemical composition from those that occur in soil with the participation of only microflora. In the gut of earthworms are formed complexes with mineral components - humates. Humates (humic acids, lithium, potassium, sodium and ammonium salts) are water soluble, but humates of calcium, magnesium and other heavy metals can remain long if not forever in the soil in the form of stable aggregates (water-, water-resistant, hydrophilic, and mechanically strong). They structure the soil, making it water-and air-permeable and fertile. The humus content of dry matter reaches in coprolites of earthworms of natural populations up to 11% to 15%, and by cultivated invertebrates it is twice more – 25% to 35%. There is no other equally powerful humus-producer as earthworms in nature, and it is not possible yet to create humus and fertile soil in other ways.

Natural sign of soil health and soil fertility is the presence of earthworms in it. The more earthworms there are, the more soil is healthy and fertile. By population density of 100 worms/per m2 and their total mass of 50 g/per m2 of soil the worms make in this area for 210 days summer period about 1000 meters of tunnels (moves) and make soil loose and water-and air- permeable. When worms make their tunnels, they absorb part of soil with dispersed organic matters in it as fodder in an amount of 0,5 to 1 of its weight- size per day, and give it out as coprolites. During the same period 100 species per 1 m2 of soil convert into 10,5 of coprolites and for 1 ha - no less than 105 tons. Humans don’t have such assets to annually prepare, load and take to the field and spread 105 tons / ha of organic humus fertilizers. It is impossible to replace activity of soil worms by mechanical machinery for soil preparation and sowing. Moreover, chemical fertilizers can not compensate for Fertilizer value of coprolites. We can therefore conclude that any human activity,which is connected with his desire to improve soil structure, plow and harrow, is detrimental to fertility of soil, and the insertion of chemical fertilizers accelerates its destruction and impoverishment.

It will not succeed to achieve improvement of soil fertility without the organic farming system now. It is primarily aimed at the resumption of worms life and of other soil mesofauna and microorganisms, which are the major reproducers of soil fertility and the guarantee of high productivity of sown crops ..

The Company «Green-PIK» has domisticated the technology of industrial humus production (vermicompost, worm compost) on the basis of recycling of organic waste from field crop cultivation and animal husbandry. This technology among with using earthworm “Staratel” allows to process to 1 ton of compost on the area of 1 m2 for 140 days and to produce up to 600 kg of vermicompost.

The weakest link in biosphere homeostasis in an era of increasing industrial and chemical pollution of soil is biota, and particularly earthworms. They were etched by acid rains, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By losing earthworms the soil has lost fertility. Revival and increase of soil fertility of arable land is impossible without the restoration and enhancement of living matters.

Today, scientists have found so far the only tool that can protect all life on Earth from the harmful effects of starvation and environmental pollution:it is earthworms and  humus (and other soil biota) that they create. Nobody and nothing can compare with earthworms by the force of the positive impact on wildlife.

Based on our understanding of the role of living matters in increasing soil fertility and agricultural output it is necessary to develop and to introduce new biotechnological methods of resuscitation of the living substance of degraded soils, as well as to show that wasteland can be returned in the coming years to the high-yield level, thus reviving fertility for the benefit of future generations.

Author(s): Igonin AM