Biological Approaches to Sustainable Soil Systems

This book includes the work of both researchers and practitioners from around the world. It explores problems and solutions for sustainable soli-system management in a variety of climatic conditions. The text is thorough and detailed, and discusses the importance of symbiotic relationships between plants and soil organisms, looking at crops as integral and interdependent participants in ecosystems. The different chapters look at innovation in soil system strategies in tropical and temperate regions, and present a variety of ways to produce more crops with less dependence on external inputs. In LEISA Magazine, Pages 32 & 33, December 2006 For an ever-green revolution, we need, first and foremost, to have sustainable soil systems. It is in this context that Biological Approaches to Sustainable Soil Systems is an extremely timely and valuable contribution to a wider understanding of what needs to be done for the sake of a truly modern agriculture and for the sake of future generations. The book provides the scientific basis for low external-input agriculture. Soil health is treated in a holistic manner involving attention to the physics, chemistry, and microbiology of soil systems. The various chapters could help scientists chart out and embark on a program of soil breeding for high productivity. Such initiatives for sustainable agriculture should receive as much attention as crop breeding has been given if we are to promote advances in productivity in perpetuity without adverse ecological consequences. From the foreword by M.S. Swaminathan, World Food Prize Laureate, Co-chair, UNs Millenium Task Force on Poverty and Hunger " The complexity of soil systems leads to discussions from different disciplines reminiscent of the tale of the three blind men describing an elephant: radically different views limited to observations of a small piece of the whole. ... moves toward integrating these often disparate perspectives on soils with a distinctly practical social aim: to modify agricultural practices to reduce environmental degradation and increase food security, based on improved scientific understanding of soil systems. a cross between a general soil ecoagriculture textbook and a compendium of applied research, coupled with take-home messages for the practitioner chapters are written for the non-expert, and are well cross-referenced, which illustrates the tight coupling among the subjects, and points the reader to additional references. presents a myriad of applications and syntheses on biological soil management from around the world. This book introduces the broad range of topics and advancements that will form the foundation for biological soil management in the future. appropriate as a primer and general reference for the agricultural benefits of biological soil management for non-experts across a variety of disciplines, from policy to enlightened practitioners to academics. Graduate students and researchers with an interest in social impacts of science will benefit from the succinct background chapters linked with international field-based experimental research, and will find plenty of potential research directions highlighted as gaps in the current knowledge base." Karen W. Holmes, in Landscape Ecology, 2008

Norman Uphoff, Andrew S. Ball, Erick Fernandes, Hans Herren, Olivier Husson, Mark Laing, Cheryl Palm, Jules Pretty, Pedro Sanchez, Nteranya Sanginga, Janice Thies

Overview. Soil Agents and Processes. Strategies and Methods. Related Issues.