Winter 1994 (v6n1)
	Soil management for sustainability. R. Lal and F.J. Pierce (Editors) Soil and Water Conservation Society, Ankeny, IA. 1991 Increasing awareness of the problems of soil and environmental degradation have made sustainable soil management an important topic of research. The rate of soil degradation is estimated at five to seven million hectares per year. This book describes soil management issues that pertain to increasing agricultural sustainability. The book is dedicated to DL William E. Larson who was a pioneer in sustainable soil management research. The 14 papers that make up the book were presented at a workshop, "Soil Management for Sustainability" in Edmonton, Alberta, in August 1989. The workshop examined soil management from three perspectives. This review highlights a chapter from each of those perspectives. The first involves soil processes including soil structure, compaction, and erosion. The second considers management options including conservation tillage and planting systems, wastewater sludge use, farming by soil, energy efficiency and agricultural sustainability. The third perspective takes into account natural resource assessment policy and research priorities. Erosion Productivity Impact Prediction (F.J. Pierce). This chapter asserts that it is presently extremely difficult to predict the effects of soil erosion and productivity. The author recommends three actions for improving the capability for making predictions. First, there needs to be standardization of measuring the effects of soil erosion on productivity and a program to measure the changes over time. Next, worldwide policies affecting natural resources need to be monitored to make certain there are incentives for adopting conservation practices. Finally, there must be efforts to restore degraded land. Farming by Soil (W.E. Larson and P.C. Robert). This paper describes a method of customizing the management of different soil types in a field to best suit each type. The authors use data collected from Jackson County, Minnesota, to illustrate their point. Because all fields show field variability regarding water drainage, soil texture, organic matter content and other factors, different treatments for different "soilscape units" are often necessary. New technologies are making farming-by-soil easier. For example, computers in the cabs of spreaders can show field conditions to the farmers as they spread chemicals, enabling them to customize the treatment of fertilizers and herbicides for the different soils. Managing treatments on a soil-specific basis also can potentially reduce water and environmental contamination, and soil erosion. The author sees farming-by-soil technology as one of the greatest innovations in soil management in the last ten years. Sustaining the Resource Base of an Expanding World Agriculture (B.A. Stewart, R. Lal and S.A. El-Swaify). The authors of this chapter describe how soil productivity and sustainability are affected by world agricultural practices. They make recommendations for the roles soil scientists must take for achieving more sustainability. Government policies and adoption of new production technologies need to also support sustainability in terms of land use and appropriate technology. The chapter focuses on dryland agriculture and discusses climate and soil as the factors most important in determining a sustainable system. Other chapters include: The Vanishing Resource; Soil Structure: Processes and Management; Soil Stresses Important to Management; Soil Compaction Mechanisms and Their Control; Soil Erosion: Processes, Impacts, and Prediction; Adoption of Conservation Tillage and Associated Planting Systems; Management of Agricultural Land Receiving Wastewater Sludges; Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of Farming Systems; Natural Resources Assessment and Policy; Soil Management Research in the Search for Sustainable Agriculture; Soil Management in the 21st Century. Soil Management for Sustainability is available for $15.00 from the Soil and Water Conservation Society, 7515 Northeast Ankeny Road, Ankeny, IA 50021-9764. (RDR.001) Contributed by Ruth Peckham [ Back | Search | Feedback ]