Soils, Land and Food: Managing the Land During the Twenty-First CenturyCambridge University Press, 2003 M01 9 - 246 pages A major challenge of the twenty-first century will be to ensure sufficient global food production to cope with the burgeoning world population. Soils, Land and Food is a short text aimed at undergraduates, graduates, agricultural scientists and policy makers which describes how the use of technology in soil management can increase and sustain agricultural production. The book leads the reader through the development of techniques of land management and discusses reasons why some agricultural projects have succeeded while others have failed. It shows how surveying and protecting soils before new land is brought into cultivation, raising soil fertility, increasing inputs and improving economic conditions can all help to increase food production. Particular emphasis is placed on the need for both economic change and technological intervention in developing countries where, in many cases, food production will need to more than double in the next fifty years. |
Contents
Managing land for food production in the twentyfirst century an outline | 1 |
12 Definition of terms | 4 |
13 Importance of sustainable land and soil management | 6 |
Natural resources for sustainable land management | 9 |
23 Climate and vegetation | 10 |
24 Water | 14 |
25 Soils | 16 |
26 Summary | 22 |
72 Soil water | 110 |
73 Water requirement of crops | 113 |
74 Rainfed agriculture | 115 |
75 Irrigation | 120 |
76 Summary | 124 |
Managing change of land use seven examples | 127 |
England | 128 |
83 The Gezira irrigation scheme Sudan | 138 |
The development of agriculture and systems of land management | 23 |
32 Origins of agriculture | 24 |
33 The spread of agriculture from its centres of origin | 25 |
34 Development of techniques | 28 |
35 Land tenure taxation and trade | 46 |
36 Summary | 49 |
Maintaining and improving soil fertility | 51 |
42 Soil properties that affect crop growth | 52 |
43 Nutrients in soil | 54 |
44 Nutrient supply to plant roots | 55 |
45 Importance of soil organic matter | 59 |
46 Nutrient cycling and budgets | 62 |
47 Biological nitrogen fixation | 65 |
48 Effects of cultivations | 66 |
Land degradation and its control | 69 |
causes and effects | 70 |
53 Soil erosion | 74 |
54 Degradation of soil chemical properties | 81 |
55 Degradation of soil physical properties | 88 |
56 Desertification | 90 |
57 Summary | 91 |
Raising yields use of fertilizers | 93 |
63 Diagnostic techniques for fertilizer use | 96 |
64 Field experiments with fertilizers | 98 |
65 Improving the efficiency of use of fertilizers | 103 |
66 Acidification from nitrogen fertilizers | 106 |
67 Summary | 107 |
Raising yields water for rainfed crops and irrigation | 109 |
84 The African groundnut schemes | 140 |
85 The maize industry in Zimbabwe | 144 |
86 Development of the Brazilian cerrado | 146 |
oil palm in Malaysia | 148 |
Machakos Kenya and Kano Nigeria | 150 |
89 Summary and conclusions | 152 |
Increasing and sustaining agricultural production | 155 |
92 Increase in population | 156 |
93 Food requirements of the larger population | 157 |
use of more land | 160 |
increasing yields | 163 |
96 The balance between use of more land and increased yields | 169 |
97 Sustaining agriculture production | 171 |
98 Protecting the environment | 175 |
99 Summary | 180 |
Increasing agricultural production the examples of Africa India and China | 183 |
the recent past and future prospects | 193 |
the recent past and future prospects | 199 |
105 Summary and conclusions | 203 |
Prospects and uncertainties | 207 |
more land or larger yields? | 210 |
113 Protecting the environment | 211 |
114 Uncertainties in meeting future food requirements | 213 |
115 Summary | 218 |
223 | |
243 | |
Other editions - View all
Soils, Land and Food: Managing the Land during the Twenty-First Century Alan Wild No preview available - 2003 |
Soils, Land, and Food: Managing the Land During the Twenty-first Century Alan Wild No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
acid acidification agricultural development agricultural production Alexandratos America animals annual application arable Asia average billion biological canals cations caused cent cereals cerrado Chapter China climate conservation crop varieties crop yields dams degradation depends developing countries drainage drought dryland economic ecosystems effects estimated evaporation example fallow FAO Production Yearbooks farmers farming systems food production global grain Greenland groundnuts grown harvest India inputs irrigated area irrigation kg ha-ยน land area leaching legumes London loss maize manures Mesopotamia millennium mineral mycorrhizas Nigeria nineteenth century nitrate nitrogen fertilizers nitrogen fixation nutrients oxide period pesticides phosphate plants population potential rainfall rainfed reduced regions rhizosphere rice river roots runoff salinization season soil erosion soil fertility soil organic matter soil salinization Soil Science soil surface sorghum sub-Saharan Africa supply sustainable Table temperature tion tropics twentieth century uptake vegetation wheat