L. Wittenmayer – författare

The world’s population is expected to reach 8 billion by 2025 and most of this growth in population will occur in developing countries. To feed the world with such a marked increase in population, a great improvement in food production must be achieved particularly in these countries. To meet this challenge, present agricultural productivity must be increased on the cultivated land. However, in many developing countries, particularly in Africa, reduced soil fertility caused by continuous cropping with low nutrient input and the resultant nutrient mining of soils is a major threat both to food production and to ecosystem viability. As a result of declining soil fertility, together with increasing population pressure, expansion of crop production to marginal lands and forested areas contribute to the destruction of natural ecosystems. Food production is not only a quantitative challenge. Improving the nutrient status of plants provides a further valuable means of enhancing food quality and is of extreme benefit to the health of both plants and humans. There are several excellent examples showing that plants with optimum nutrient status are better adapted to biotic and abiotic stress factors. Because of population pressures, many global food systems are not currently providing enough micronutrients to ensure adequate micronutrient intakes in the human diet. This has resulted in an increasing prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies that now afflicts over three billion people worldwide.

The International Plant Nutrition Colloquium in Hannover was the 14th in a series that started in 1954. Hannover was also selected as the venue of the 7th Colloquium held 27 years ago, in September 1974, under the presidency of J. Wehrmann. This volume is a compilation of extended abstracts of all papers presented at the 14th Colloquium. These papers include two plenary lectures which address the role of plant nutrition in the sustainability of agro-ecosystems and the production of enough high quality food to feed the growing world population. Recent advances in plant nutrition are reviewed in introductory plenary lectures in each of the Symposia devoted to: genetics and molecular biology of plant nutrition, nutrient functions, nutrient uptake and translocation, the role of the apoplast in mineral nutrition, plant quality and plant health, salinity and plant--soil--water relations, mineral element toxicity and resistance nutrient acquisition, soil organisms/plant interactions, fertiliser use in relation to optimum yield and environment, nutrient dynamics in natural and agro-ecosystems, and plant nutrition and sustainable development.Current knowledge and research emphasis in these areas of the subject is well illustrated by more than 500 oral and poster presentations and the reader is provided with a comprehensive view of the state of plant nutrition research worldwide.