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.

Degradation of soils continues at a pace that will eventually create a local, regional, or even global crisis when diminished soil resources collide with increasing climate variation. It's not too late to restore our soils to a more productive state by rediscovering the value of soil management, building on our well-established and ever-expanding scientific understanding of soils. Soil management concepts have been in place since the cultivation of crops, but we need to rediscover the principles that are linked together in effective soil management. This book is unique because of its treatment of soil management based on principles—the physical, chemical, and biological processes and how together they form the foundation for soil management processes that range from tillage to nutrient management. Whether new to soil science or needing a concise reference, readers will benefit from this book's ability to integrate the science of soils with management issues and long-term conservation efforts.

Just five years ago, it was generally believed that the number of food insecure people in the world was on continuous decline. Unfortunately, widespread soil degradation along with resistance to recommended agronomic practices, and little attempt to restore degraded soils have conspired with significant droughts (in regions that could least tolerat

Soil—The Basis of All Terrestrial Life Ancient civilizations and cultures—Mayan, Aztec, Mesopotamian, Indus, and Yangtze—were built on good soils, surviving only as long as soils had the capacity to support them. In the twenty-first century, productive soil is still the engine of economic development and essential to human well-being. The quality of our soil resources, however, is threatened by human-induced and natural perturbations. World Soil Resources and Food Security takes an in-depth look at the availability and status of soil resources in the context of the growing demands of an increasing world population and rising expectations of living standards. This timely reference presents current information on the soil resources available for food production. Presenting innovative strategies for soil and water management, it discusses how to maintain or improve the world’s soil resources in order to increase food production. With the majority of the world’s 1.02 billion food-insecure people concentrated in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, several chapters focus on soil resources in these regions. Contributions from renowned scientists deal with topics including: Global food situations World soil resources Soil resources of humid Asia and their acidification Soil resources of South Asia Properties and management of Vertisols Use of radioisotopic techniques in soil management The potential of rain-fed agriculture in the semiarid tropics The status of land degradation Nutrient balance in sub-Saharan Africa The book concludes by outlining the need for further research to generate credible data on soil resources and degradation. This volume is a useful resource for those interested in the state of the soils of the world in relation to food security and environmental quality.

Recounts the author's experiences founding a faith-based community garden in rural North Carolina, and emphasizes how growing one's own food can help readers reconnect with the land and divine faith.

Faced with challenges of resource scarcity and environmental degradation, it is important to adopt innovative farming systems that maximize resource efficiency while protecting the environment. Soil-Specific Farming: Precision Agriculture focuses on principles and applications of soil-specific farming, providing information on rapidly evolving agri

"A regenerative no-till pioneer."—NBC News "We need to reintegrate livestock and crops on our farms and ranches, and Gabe Brown shows us how to do it well."—Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation See Gabe Brown—author and farmer—in the Netflix documentary Kiss the Ground Gabe Brown didn’t set out to change the world when he first started working alongside his father-in-law on the family farm in North Dakota. But as a series of weather-related crop disasters put Brown and his wife, Shelly, in desperate financial straits, they started making bold changes to their farm. Brown—in an effort to simply survive—began experimenting with new practices he’d learned about from reading and talking with innovative researchers and ranchers. As he and his family struggled to keep the farm viable, they found themselves on an amazing journey into a new type of farming: regenerative agriculture. Brown dropped the use of most of the herbicides, insecticides, and synthetic fertilizers that are a standard part of conventional agriculture. He switched to no-till planting, started planting diverse cover crops mixes, and changed his grazing practices. In so doing Brown transformed a degraded farm ecosystem into one full of life—starting with the soil and working his way up, one plant and one animal at a time. In Dirt to Soil Gabe Brown tells the story of that amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to restoring the soil by laying out and explaining his "five principles of soil health," which are: Limited Disturbance Armor Diversity Living Roots Integrated Animals The Brown’s Ranch model, developed over twenty years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil. Using regenerative agricultural principles, Brown’s Ranch has grown several inches of new topsoil in only twenty years! The 5,000-acre ranch profitably produces a wide variety of cash crops and cover crops as well as grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured laying hens, broilers, and pastured pork, all marketed directly to consumers. The key is how we think, Brown says. In the industrial agricultural model, all thoughts are focused on killing things. But that mindset was also killing diversity, soil, and profit, Brown realized. Now he channels his creative thinking toward how he can get more life on the land—more plants, animals, and beneficial insects. “The greatest roadblock to solving a problem,” Brown says, “is the human mind.”