The removal of harvest residue after removing the crop is very harmful to soil fertility because fresh organic matter is removed whose transformation produces humic matter. Humus is very important for maintaining soil fertility or for improving its, physical, chemical and biological properties.
HARVEST RESIDUE DECOMPOSITION DIAGRAM
Fresh organic residues originating from plants (root, leaf, tree, fruit), animals and microorganisms (biomass) are transformed either to complete mineralization or to semi-decomposed matter which directly or indirectly enter into the composition of humus.
These transformations take place in the soil by means of microorganisms that have the ability to break down cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin. The intensity of transformations depends on the type of plant material, temperature, water content and activity of present microorganism populations. Mineralization often takes place slowly, causing the non-decomposed and semi-decomposed residue of plants to remain in soil until the next sowing, making difficult the pre-sowing preparation of soil and uniform emergence of plants.
With the application of Uniker containing bacteria that decompose cellulose, the transformation processes of crop residues in soil are accelerated. With the use of Uniker, the formation of nitric depression (lack of accessible nitrogen) in soil is prevented because Uniker contains organic matter that decomposes with the help of proteolytic bacteria into available nitrogen (NH4), therefore regulating the C/N ratio.