Soils, Land and Food

Managing the Land during the Twenty-First Century

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Hardcover | 9 January 2003

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Hardcover
258 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 1.6

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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.

Industry Reviews

'... Professor Wild's book deserves to be studied by a wide audience.' Journal of Experimental Agriculture 'Soils, Land and Food is worthy and well informed ... make library acquisition requests for it, and include it on student reading lists! It should also be purchased as an invaluable source of sound information, with its rich, wide-ranging list of references. The scope of the book is indeed impressive ... always accessible to an academic reader from another specialty ...'. European Journal of Soil Science

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Preface	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. x
Managing land for food production in the twenty-first century: an outline
Population and food requirements	p. 1
Definition of terms	p. 4
Importance of sustainable land and soil management	p. 6
Natural resources for sustainable land management
Introduction	p. 9
Area of land	p. 9
Climate and vegetation	p. 10
Water	p. 14
Soils	p. 16
Summary	p. 22
The development of agriculture and systems of land management
Introduction	p. 23
Origins of agriculture	p. 24
The spread of agriculture from its centres of origin	p. 25
Development of techniques	p. 28
Land tenure, taxation and trade	p. 46
Summary	p. 49
Maintaining and improving soil fertility
Introduction	p. 51
Soil properties that affect crop growth	p. 52
Nutrients in soil	p. 54
Nutrient supply to plant roots	p. 55
Importance of soil organic matter	p. 59
Nutrient cycling and budgets	p. 62
Biological nitrogen fixation	p. 65
Effects of cultivations	p. 66
Summary	p. 66
Land degradation and its control
Introduction	p. 69
Degradation of soils: causes and effects	p. 70
Soil erosion	p. 74
Degradation of soil chemical properties	p. 81
Degradation of soil physical properties	p. 88
Desertification	p. 90
Summary	p. 91
Raising yields: use of fertilizers
Introduction	p. 93
Fertilizer use during the twentieth century	p. 93
Diagnostic techniques for fertilizer use	p. 96
Field experiments with fertilizers	p. 98
Improving the efficiency of use of fertilizers	p. 103
Acidification from nitrogen fertilizers	p. 106
Summary	p. 107
Raising yields: water for rainfed crops and irrigation
Introduction	p. 109
Soil water	p. 110
Water requirement of crops	p. 113
Rainfed agriculture	p. 115
Irrigation	p. 120
Summary	p. 124
Managing change of land use: seven examples
Introduction	p. 127
Agricultural development in a developed country: England	p. 128
The Gezira irrigation scheme, Sudan	p. 138
The African groundnut schemes	p. 140
The maize industry in Zimbabwe	p. 144
Development of the Brazilian cerrado	p. 146
Plantation crops: oil palm in Malaysia	p. 148
Semi-arid agriculture: Machakos, Kenya and Kano, Nigeria	p. 150
Summary and conclusions	p. 152
Increasing and sustaining agricultural production
Introduction	p. 155
Increase in population	p. 156
Food requirements of the larger population	p. 157
Raising arable production: use of more land	p. 160
Raising arable production: increasing yields	p. 163
The balance between use of more land and increased yields	p. 169
Sustaining agricultural production	p. 171
Protecting the environment	p. 175
Summary	p. 180
Increasing agricultural production: the examples of Africa, India and China
Introduction	p. 183
Africa: the recent past and future prospects	p. 183
India: the recent past and future prospects	p. 193
China: the recent past and future prospects	p. 199
Summary and conclusions	p. 203
Prospects and uncertainties
Population and food production	p. 207
Implications of the choice: more land or larger yields?	p. 210
Protecting the environment	p. 211
Uncertainties in meeting future food requirements	p. 213
Summary	p. 218
References	p. 223
Index	p. 243
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Soils, Land and Food

Managing the Land during the Twenty-First Century

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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