Soils and Food Sufficiency: A Review

Lal, Rattan

doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2666-8_4

Cited by 59 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 172 publications

(67 reference statements)

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“…). Other environmental drivers of both the quantity and quality of crop yields include pests and pathogens, and increasingly important chronic factors include rising salinity, deteriorating soils, new pests and decreasing pollinators (Lal ; Jaggard, Qi & Ober ; Potts et al . ).…”

Section: Resilience Is Manifest Over Multiple Spatial Scales In Agri‐mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience and food security: rethinking an ecological concept

et al. 2017

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Reading RG6 6AS, UK Summary 1. Focusing on food production, in this paper we define resilience in the food security context as maintaining production of sufficient and nutritious food in the face of chronic and acute environmental perturbations. In agri-food systems, resilience is manifest over multiple spatial scales: field, farm, regional and global. Metrics comprise production and nutritional diversity as well as socioeconomic stability of food supply. 2. Approaches to enhancing resilience show a progression from more ecologically based methods at small scales to more socially based interventions at larger scales. At the field scale, approaches include the use of mixtures of crop varieties, livestock breeds and forage species, polycultures and boosting ecosystem functions. Stress-tolerant crops, or with greater plasticity, provide technological solutions. 3. At the farm scale, resilience may be conferred by diversifying crops and livestock and by farmers implementing adaptive approaches in response to perturbations. Biodiverse landscapes may enhance resilience, but the evidence is weak. At regional to global scales, resilient food systems will be achieved by coordination and implementation of resilience approaches among farms, advice to farmers and targeted research. 4. Synthesis. Threats to food production are predicted to increase under climate change and land degradation. Holistic responses are needed that integrate across spatial scales. Ecological knowledge is critical, but should be implemented alongside agronomic solutions and socio-economic transformations.

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Section: Resilience Is Manifest Over Multiple Spatial Scales In Agri‐mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience and food security: rethinking an ecological concept

et al. 2017

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“…There are a number of meta‐studies which attempt to quantify the average (environmental and yield) benefits of practices associated with CA. Lal () reviewed the literature on soil conservation globally and concluded that mulching and no‐till clearly improved soil health, sometimes improved yields (depending on conditions) and usually improved profits (due to lower inputs). Farooq et al .…”

Section: Productivity Implications In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Smart Agriculture? Assessing the Adaptation Implications in Zambia

Arslan¹,

McCarthy²,

Lipper³

et al. 2015

J Agricultural Economics

177

130

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We examine a set of potentially climate smart agricultural practices, including reduced tillage, crop rotation and legume intercropping, combined with the use of improved seeds and inorganic fertiliser, for their effects on maize yields in Zambia. We use panel data from the Rural Incomes and Livelihoods Surveys merged with a novel set of climatic variables based on geo‐referenced historical rainfall and temperature data to explore the changing effects of these practices with climatic conditions. We estimate the impacts on maize yields, and also on the exhibition of very low yields and yield shortfalls from average levels, as indicators of resilience, while controlling for household characteristics. We find that minimum soil disturbance and crop rotation have no significant impact on these yield outcomes, but that legume intercropping significantly increases yields and reduces the probability of low yields even under critical weather stress during the growing season. We also find that the average positive impacts of modern input use (seeds and fertilisers) are significantly conditioned by climatic variables. Timely access to fertiliser emerges as one of the most robust determinants of yields and their resilience. These results have policy implications for targeted interventions to improve the productivity and the resilience of smallholder agriculture in Zambia in the face of climate change.

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“…In addition to providing a stable store of soil organic matter, biochar increases soil pH and cation exchange capacity, improves soil structure and water retention capacity, and decreases nutrient loss through leaching and runoff (Lehmann, ; Sohi et al ., ; Spokas et al ., ; Glaser, ; Paz‐Ferreiro et al ., ). The benefits of biochar are evident in the nutrient‐rich terra preta (black) soils of the Amazon basin (Glaser, ; Lal, ; Lehmann, ; Barrow, ; Thomas & Gale, ). Amazonian Dark Earths are anthropogenic in origin, formed by pre‐Columbian inhabitants at settlement sites (Woods & Denevan, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous Charcoal and Biochar Production: Potential for Soil Improvement under Shifting Cultivation Systems

Coomes

Miltner

2016

Land Degrad Dev

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Biochar offers potential for enhancing the agricultural productivity of degraded lands in the humid tropics. This paper reports on charcoal and biochar production among peasant farmers who practise shifting cultivation in the Peruvian Amazon. Using wood from secondary forest fallows, farmers produce charcoal for market in earthen mound kilns, also yielding biochar, as charcoal fines, which becomes incorporated into kiln site soils. Data were collected in a riverside community near Iquitos through interviews with farmers/charcoal producers, an inventory of kiln sites, a kiln audit of the charcoal production process, and soil sampling of kiln sites and adjacent paired control sites (depth: 15 cm). Our results indicate that kilns incorporate substantial quantities of biochar into local soils (Ultisols), as much as 30 tonnes each year on 0·4-0·8 ha of kiln sites. Additions of biochar and ash significantly enhance soil fertility by increasing organic C content, raising P and other nutrient concentrations, reducing acidity and exchangeable Al, and increasing soil porosity and friability. Organic C, N, Mg, Ca, and effective cation exchange capacity did not decrease significantly with increasing kiln site age, suggesting that heightened levels may persist for more than a decade after kilns are used. Farmers recognize the elevated fertility of kiln sites and cultivate in them annual and perennial crops, as well as use kiln soil and biochar off-site, in home gardens, nursery beds, and planting holes. Our findings point to the potential of biochar to ameliorate soils and enhance forest recovery under shifting cultivation systems that integrate charcoal production into forest fallow-based rotations.

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Soils and Food Sufficiency: A Review

Cited by 59 publications

References 172 publications

Resilience and food security: rethinking an ecological concept

Resilience and food security: rethinking an ecological concept

Climate Smart Agriculture? Assessing the Adaptation Implications in Zambia

Indigenous Charcoal and Biochar Production: Potential for Soil Improvement under Shifting Cultivation Systems

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