Description
Book SynopsisNearly two billion people depend on hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers for food security. Yet, these farmers' lives also hang in the balance due to their extreme vulnerability to the risks of soil degradation and depletion, soil exhaustion, climate change, and numerous biotic and abiotic stresses. Soil Management of Smallholder Agriculture explores the potential smallholder agriculture hold for advancing global food security and outlines the challenges to achieving this goal.
The book addresses the challenges and opportunities that resource-poor and small landholders face and provides recommended management practices to alleviate soil-related constraints, and increase and sustain crop yield and production. It discusses the cultural, economic, social, and technological aspects of sustainable soil management for smallholder farmers. It then examines soil-related and institutional constraints, principles of sustainable agriculture, soil quality improvement, nutrie
Trade Review
"This book puts forth a management program for small farmers to ease soil-related constraints. The contributing authors consider cultural, economic, social, and technological issues associated with sustainable management of the soil."
—Ringgold, Inc. Book News, February 2015
Table of ContentsSoil-related constraints to smallholder agriculture. Smallholder agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Subsistence farming in India. Resource-poor farmers of Central America and the Caribbeans. Technological options for alleviating soil-related constraints of resource-poor farmers. Nutrient management in soils of the tropics. Improving soil quality. Principles of sustainable agriculture. Managing soil fertility in dry region. Soil C sequestration and the human dimensions. Organic vs. inorganic soil nutrients. Sustainable soil management as an engine of economic development. Competing uses of crop residues. Soil security for resource-poor farmers. Soil biology and ecology. The human dimensions. Economics of crop production. Enhancing resource-use efficiency. Institutional constraints. Towards improving agronomic production. Research and development priorities.
