Abstract
The global food crisis in 2008 has brought worldwide attention to issues relating to food and agriculture, including the impacts of climate change, extreme climatic variability and finite fossil fuel energy resources on sustainable agriculture. The underlying causes of this food crisis are complex and require not only immediate but also long term solutions. To enhance long term food security, it is important to improve land productivity by improving soil fertility and soil organic matter status and enhancing soil nutrient, fertilizer and water use efficiency under both rain-fed and irrigated conditions. Our preoccupation with addressing the immediate food crisis means that issues such as land management, which require long term solutions, are frequently neglected. Yet inappropriate land management not only causes a reduction in land productivity, thus creating food insecurity and poverty, but it also leads to the degradation of farmers' environments through reductions in the quality and quantity of water supplies for rural and downstream communities and an increase in socioeconomic and -political instability. To combat land degradation, it is important to restore soil health through improving soil fertility and soil organic matter and also to mitigate the causes of land degradation. Some of these causes include: (i) inadequate
More>>
Citation Formats
None.
Soils Newsletter, Vol. 31, No. 2, January 2009.
IAEA: N. p.,
2009.
Web.
None.
Soils Newsletter, Vol. 31, No. 2, January 2009.
IAEA.
None.
2009.
"Soils Newsletter, Vol. 31, No. 2, January 2009."
IAEA.
@misc{etde_21487422,
title = {Soils Newsletter, Vol. 31, No. 2, January 2009}
author = {None}
abstractNote = {The global food crisis in 2008 has brought worldwide attention to issues relating to food and agriculture, including the impacts of climate change, extreme climatic variability and finite fossil fuel energy resources on sustainable agriculture. The underlying causes of this food crisis are complex and require not only immediate but also long term solutions. To enhance long term food security, it is important to improve land productivity by improving soil fertility and soil organic matter status and enhancing soil nutrient, fertilizer and water use efficiency under both rain-fed and irrigated conditions. Our preoccupation with addressing the immediate food crisis means that issues such as land management, which require long term solutions, are frequently neglected. Yet inappropriate land management not only causes a reduction in land productivity, thus creating food insecurity and poverty, but it also leads to the degradation of farmers' environments through reductions in the quality and quantity of water supplies for rural and downstream communities and an increase in socioeconomic and -political instability. To combat land degradation, it is important to restore soil health through improving soil fertility and soil organic matter and also to mitigate the causes of land degradation. Some of these causes include: (i) inadequate use of fertilizers to combat soil nutrient deficiencies and to compensate for nutrient removal from animal and crop products, (ii) intensive land cultivation without adequate crop residue return, (iii) overgrazing or poor grazing management which destroys soil structure through soil trampling by livestock and (iv) poor irrigation, leading to salinity and excessive loss of soil nutrients to groundwater. The activities of the Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition (SWMCN) Section and Soil Science Unit in 2008 both through the network of coordinated research projects (CRPs) and technical cooperation projects (TCPs) have focused on providing information and capacity building in the use of isotopic techniques to Member States as they seek to address the issues outlined above}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2009}
month = {Jan}
}
title = {Soils Newsletter, Vol. 31, No. 2, January 2009}
author = {None}
abstractNote = {The global food crisis in 2008 has brought worldwide attention to issues relating to food and agriculture, including the impacts of climate change, extreme climatic variability and finite fossil fuel energy resources on sustainable agriculture. The underlying causes of this food crisis are complex and require not only immediate but also long term solutions. To enhance long term food security, it is important to improve land productivity by improving soil fertility and soil organic matter status and enhancing soil nutrient, fertilizer and water use efficiency under both rain-fed and irrigated conditions. Our preoccupation with addressing the immediate food crisis means that issues such as land management, which require long term solutions, are frequently neglected. Yet inappropriate land management not only causes a reduction in land productivity, thus creating food insecurity and poverty, but it also leads to the degradation of farmers' environments through reductions in the quality and quantity of water supplies for rural and downstream communities and an increase in socioeconomic and -political instability. To combat land degradation, it is important to restore soil health through improving soil fertility and soil organic matter and also to mitigate the causes of land degradation. Some of these causes include: (i) inadequate use of fertilizers to combat soil nutrient deficiencies and to compensate for nutrient removal from animal and crop products, (ii) intensive land cultivation without adequate crop residue return, (iii) overgrazing or poor grazing management which destroys soil structure through soil trampling by livestock and (iv) poor irrigation, leading to salinity and excessive loss of soil nutrients to groundwater. The activities of the Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition (SWMCN) Section and Soil Science Unit in 2008 both through the network of coordinated research projects (CRPs) and technical cooperation projects (TCPs) have focused on providing information and capacity building in the use of isotopic techniques to Member States as they seek to address the issues outlined above}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2009}
month = {Jan}
}