Soil Quality Assessment Is An Effective Tool For Evaluating Sustainability Of Soil And Crop Management Practices

Continous use of chemical fertilizers can affect the soil property which later cause decrease in productivity, low nutrient recovery for plants uptake which cause higher cost of production and environmental pollution ( Sarkar et al ., 1997 ).

No-till farming limits the amount of anthropogenic involvement, which can contribute to the degradation soil by exposing the upper soil horizon, re-introducing noxious weeds to germination, allowing for leeching and erosion of topsoil which is already in short demand. This paper discusses the benefits of no-till farming with comparisons and studies that suggest the benefits of the no-till system. This paper takes an in depth look at the history of tillage, as well as the topics of nutrients, mulch and stabilization, habitat, aggregation and aeration, and the nutrient cycle. Although in some cases tillage may have similar results when compared to the no-till system, implementation of the right cover crop on a given soil reduces evaporation, limits water and nutrient leeching, builds or enhances the soil ecosystem which has the potential to promote better plant nutrient absorption.

The soil used for farming in the savannas is becoming increasingly nutrient poor and acidic. Grain acts as both the main source of income and food, but the crop yield continues to lessen, because of the depreciating soil quality. Therefore, the crops need to change in order to replenish the soil and increase crop production. Also, by only growing a few crops and shipping the majority of their harvest, those

Doran, J.W., and T.B. Parkin. "Soil Quality Indicators: Measures of Soil Functional State." Soil Quality: Indicators. SSSA, Inc., 1996. Web. 08 Sept. 2015.

Most farmers in the country have opted to clear the fields to cultivate rice, wheat and other cereals for commercialization. With the low standards of living, most farmers in Japan prefer agriculture as a source of livelihood. This has led to an immense reduction in vegetation cover that is now threatening to clear up the surviving water sources (Xiaodong, 2015). The environment has been further degraded by the extensive use of pesticides and herbicides on the wheat and rice farms. Given the increased number of rice farmers, the volume of pesticides getting to the soil increases exponentially every time. This leads to pollution of both the soil and water system through ground slippage and surface run-offs, providing a clear picture of the situation on the

The Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) of south Asia is formed by the sedimentation of alluvial soil by the Indus and the Ganges rivers. The large fertile plain with flowing rivers favours agriculture. The rice-wheat farming system in the Indo-Gangetic plain occupies 13.5 M ha of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal (Timsina and Connor, 2001). In India, the rice-wheat farming system is the major source of food security as it produces more than 50% of cereal in 10 M ha (Ladha et al., 2000).

Sub-Saharan Africa’s grain yields roughly one third of other developing regions of the planet. Part of the problem is Africa's age-old dependence on rain-fed agriculture in a savanna climate, where the risks of drought are ever present. Sub-Saharan Africa lacks the river-based irrigation systems of South and East Asia. Another urgent problem with Africa's agriculture is that Africa's soils have been depleted of nutrients because impoverished farmers have been unable to afford fertilizers to replenish their soils. Older techniques for replenishing soil nutrients, such as the rotation of farm lands, allowing the replenishment of nutrients on land left to fallow for 10 or 20 years, are no longer feasible. Rising land scarcity because of

3. One management practice that can help to reduce the impact of cultivation on soil carbon on the Hotchkiss farm is the use of no-till farming. When no-till farming is used, the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil is increased and therefore organic matter retention is increased. No-till farming can help to sequester carbon via the storage of soil organic matter in the field’s soil. Since there is no tilling, the soil organic matter is not being broken down as quickly and therefore carbon is not being lost from the soil as

If insufficient fertiliser or the wrong nutrients are applied productivity can be compromised. Hence, it is important farmers undertake regular soil and leaf analysis to determine an appropriate fertiliser regime for maximum production (Queensland Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, 2012).

Soil is a complicated structure made of nutrients, organic matter, fragmented rock, water, air, gases, and microorganisms (Withgott & Laposata, 2015). These organisms and nutrients play a large role in the composition of soil, therefore are fundamental to agricultural production, and indirectly an invaluable part of the New Zealand and Australia economy, as well as important in terms of social, cultural and environmental factors. Due to this, the need to sustainably manage these soils is great, to maintain its capability to support life (Withgott & Laposata, 2015). Sustainable management is defined as “managing the use, development, and protection of natural and physical resources in a way, or at a rate, which enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural wellbeing” (Parliamentary Council Office, n.d.). It allows for resources, such as soil, to be used in ways, which provides

World Bank Also, provides the issue of adoption of improved agricultural technology is one of the fundamental ways of improving agricultural productivity (World, World Development Report 2008, Agriculture for Development, 2008). However, amount of fertilizer applied in most Ethiopia farmers was below the recommended levels and has not resulted in achieving the intended outcomes until the 1990s in the Ethiopian economy (Belay, 2003). The recommended fertilizer amount at national level is 45 kg/ha unconditional (S.Megan, 2014) it vary among soil types, condition and plant or crop

Agriculture is one of the major sector becoming vulnerable to climate-change. Increased incidences of abiotic and biotic stresses are likely to cause serious negative impact on crop production. Abiotic stress is defined as the negative impact of non-living factors on the living organisms in a specific environment. The non-living variable must influence the environment beyond its normal range of variation to adversely affect the performance or individual organism in a significant way. This leads to decrease in the productivity by more than 50% in major crop plants which are growing word wide (Bray et al., 2000). Increased water stress, reduction in rainfall and increased air temperature are the major reasons for yield decline in wheat and paddy crops in many parts of South Asia. The average increase in temperature per decade is measured to be 0.28 ºC over land and 0.12 ºC over ocean and predicted that it is likely to rise further to a maximum of 2.5 ºC by 2050 and 5.8 ºC by 2100 (Jones et al., 1999; Grover et al., 2011). The principal abiotic stresses in India are drought or soil moisture stress, high temperatures, soil salinity/alkalinity, low pH and metal toxicity stresses that affect nearly two-thirds area forming parts of the arid and semi arid eco systems (Grover et al., 2011).

For along time smallholder agricultural systems has depended on inorganic fertilizers to supply the nitrogen required for crop growth as well as maintaining or slowing the rate of carbon loss. However, in other cases especially in Nitrogen limited environment of cereal based cropping systems (such as Mzimba district), fertilizer additions can actually enhance soil carbon loss (Snapp and Pound, 2008). The continued use of inorganic fertilizers has reduced soil carbon in the district and hence reduced the water holding capacity of the soil. Sustainable use of fertilizers is accompanied by the availability of residues in the soil however an emerging challenge is that recently there has been a competing demand for residues between crops and livestock. The clearing of land in search for settlement land and opening of new farming land has led to reduced forest areas and/or grasslands where livestock used to graze and consequently, they depend solely on crop residues. This competition reduces the availability of residues to replenish soil organic matter and in the process the resilience of the agricultural systems. The outcome of the loss of resilience if increased reduced soil fertility and eventually low productivity.

The poor performance of agriculture in many low income countries is due to the deterioration of the natural resource base. The major problem which limiting the development of the agricultural sector is the land degradation which is caused by soil erosion as well as nutrient depletion. This is an enormously serious problem especially in the tropical steep lands where rain fed agriculture comprises the major livelihoods of the people. A number of these countries have numerous soil and water conservation programs which have tried to mitigate the land degradation problem but have done so unsuccessfully.

AGRICULTURAL ECOLOGY 1. Land and its Uses (a) Uses of land for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes: Uses of land for agriculture, forestry and wildlife conservation. (b) Factors affecting land availability and use: (i) Physical factors e.g., soil type, topography etc., (ii) Socio-economic factors e.g., population pressure. 2. Environmental factors affecting agricultural production: (a) Climatic factors: rainfall, temperature, light and wind. (b) Biotic factors: predators, parasites, soil microorganisms, pests and diseases. (c) Edaphic factors: soil pH, soil texture and soil structure. 3. Rock formation (a) rock types: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic; (b) rock formation processes. Formation, composition and properties of soil (a) Factors of soil formation: parent rock, topography, organisms, climate, vegetation and time (b) Processes of soil formation: physical, chemical and biological processes.