Olivier Husson: Redox Potential and Reduction-Oxidation Reactions | 2019 Soil & Nutrition Conference
Channel: Bionutrient Food Association
Date: 2020-04-06

The Role of Redox Potential and Reduction-Oxidation Reactions
Olivier Husson, PhD

“What drives life is a little electric current, kept up by the sunshine” was the elegant summary of Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Nobel Laureate in Physiology. Together with proton exchanges (acid-base reactions), electron exchanges (reduction/oxidation reactions) regulate the functioning of soil, plant, and microorganism systems, and largely impact soil, plant and animal nutrition and health. pH( measuring the availability of protons) and Eh (redox potential, measuring the availability of electrons) can be used as indicators of both soil, plant and animal health. 

In this workshop, we will "follow the electrons" in a "one health" approach to show how the cropping practices impact soil Eh-pH, which in cascade impacts microbial activity and plant nutrition, which impacts plant health and fodder quality, and as a consequence, impacts animal nutrition and health.

From the 2019 Soil & Nutrition Conference: https://soilandnutrition.org/ 

Conference archive freely available at https://bionutrient.org/soil-and-nutrition-conference/archive 
Learn more about the Bionutrient Food Association: https://bionutrient.org/
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Engineer in agronomy (ENSA Montpellier, FR) and Doctor in Agronomy (Wageningen University, NL), Olivier Husson works at CIRAD (Centre for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development), in the AIDA Research Unit (Agroecology and Sustainable Intensification of Annual crops). For 30 years, he has been working on co-designing with farmers Conservation Agriculture systems based on Direct Seeding on permanent soil cover in tropical areas (West Africa, Viet Nam, Madagascar), alternating fundamental research, applied research, training and extension works. Since 2010, he has been developing a “bioelectronics” approach, aiming at using pH, Eh (redox potential) and EC (electrical conductivity) as indicators of soil and plant health and using these indicators as management tools for agroecological crop protection.