**4.2 Hardpan management**

Hardpan management is the compact layer of soil just below the ground surface. Excess plowing leads to soil moisture loss by evaporation [50]. Avoiding working with moldboard plows, farmers must use instead a strip subsoil breaker in the first year to break the hardpan and apply a NO-TILL technology in the next years. Hardpan reduces the soil depth for plants roots and enhances soil waterlog. Plant roots grow in the surface layer reducing access to water and nutrients.

Well, aggregate soils are rarely found, usually, soils are crusted, compacted in layers or plow pans [51]. The agricultural year start in autumn and farmers first issue should be checking the hardpan with a penetrometer. After that, has to be measured the distance from soil surface to hardpan and hardpan thickness. If hardpan thickness is more than 5cm, then must be used a subsoil strip breaker. Soil improvement usually includes subsoil adding biological fertilization to break the hardpan and inoculate with microorganisms (bacteria, fungi) at the same time. Breaking the hardpan will allow water and nutrients to infiltrate deep in the ground, while microorganisms will keep the moisture and nutrients for a long period. Underground water and nutrients are stored naturally and through capillarity, the plants have access to water and nutrients during the drought period. In order to maintain the microbiology alive, they should be multiplied by feeding them and keeping constant moisture and temperature in the soil. In time, they will improve the soil structure, porosity, and the humus percentage will increase. In the photosynthesis process plants secret carbohydrates (sugar) and protein through the roots, which are food for bacteria and fungi. Bacteria and fungi are eaten by bigger microorganisms like nematodes and protozoa. Plants are thriving in such an environment even in drought conditions. With a restored soil food web, plants can control the water and nutrients cycling in the rhizosphere neighborhood. A restored food web reduces irrigation and tillage requirements, provides protection against pests and diseases and inhibits weeds. Pesticides and herbicides are not required, since applying these methods yields and farms profitability will be increasing.

Living life provides soil structure that resists wind and rain erosion. The first step will be in accordance with principles to use no plowing or disking, by implementing a no-till system. **Figure 2** compares three types of agricultural soil processing: in the first plan the work was performed with soil loosening equipment, in the second plan it is proposed the minimal processing technology by breaking the hardpan, and in the third plan a plowed land is highlighted.

The proposed technology within INMA institute is performed with an equipment that can be carried by an agricultural tractor, that cut the soil linearly without overturning the furrow, break the hardpan, and inoculate the ground with beneficial microorganisms. An active microorganism life restores the soil food web, which keep the pore open. This could be the first phase in rebuilding a healthy soil and ecosystem.
