4.2. Important soil quality indicators
From the group discussions it appeared that out of the 11 soil quality indicators named in the first individual interviews, only soil colour, earthworms, soil organic matter and soil friability were unanimously considered by farmers as significant indicators of soil quality, with soil colour as the most important one. Farmers could not decide on the order of importance of these four indicators because they considered all to be interrelated. According to farmers’ comments, if the soil is darker it will contain more clay, more organic matter, produces a more abundant spontaneous vegetation, contains more earthworms and other organisms. Consequently, friability and root development would be better and yields higher.
However, to get to know which indicators are important in decision-making, a second round of individual interviews was made. Farmers were (again individually) asked which of the 11 soil quality indicators named by all farmers involved in the study was useful to their management decisions. Out of the four indicators mentioned earlier, only soil colour was considered important for decision-making, while two other ones were now highlighted: spontaneous vegetation and rice plant development. Additionally, they stated that their usefulness depended on the production system used, and on the type of decision to be made, i.e., day-to-day management or buying and renting land, as explained below.