1st Edition

World Soil Resources and Food Security

Edited By Rattan Lal, B.A. Stewart Copyright 2012
574 Pages 149 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

574 Pages
by CRC Press

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... Read more

Sustainable Management of Soil Resources and Food Security; Rattan Lal and B.A. Stewart

Global Food Situation and Unresolved and Emerging Issues; Shahla Shapouri, Stacey Rosen, and Summer Allen

World Soil Resources: Opportunities and Challenges; H. Eswaran, P.F. Reich, and E. Padmanabhan

Soil Resources and Human Adaptation in Forest and Agricultural Ecosystems in Humid Asia; S. Funakawa, T. Watanabe, A. Kadono, A. Nakao, K. Fujii, and T. Kosaki

Pedogenetic Acidification in Upland Soils under Different Bioclimatic Conditions in Humid Asia; S. Funakawa, T. Watanabe, A. Nakao, K. Fujii, and T. Kosaki

Soil Resources Affecting Food Security and Safety in South Asia; Tapan J. Purakayastha, Bal Ram Singh, R. P. Narwal, and Promod K. Chhonkar

Formation and Management of Cracking Clay Soils (Vertisols) to Enhance Crop Productivity: Indian Experience; D. K. Pal, T. Bhattacharyya, and Suhas P. Wani

Role of Nuclear and Isotopic Techniques in Sustainable Land Management: Achieving Food Security and Mitigating Impacts of Climate Change; Long Nguyen, Felipe Zapata, Rattan Lal, and Gerd Dercon

New Paradigm to Unlock the Potential of Rainfed Agriculture in the Semiarid Tropics; Suhas P. Wani, Johan Rockstrom, B. Venkateswarlu, and A. K. Singh

Land Degradation; Freddy O. Nachtergaele, Monica Petri, and Riccardo Biancalani

Where Do We Stand 20 Years after the Assessment of Soil Nutrient Balances in Sub-Saharan Africa? E. M. A. Smaling, J. P. Lesschen, C. L. van Beek, A. de Jager, J. J. Stoorvogel, N. H. Batjes, and L. O. Fresco

Research Needs for Credible Data on Soil Resources and Degradation; Rattan Lal

Biography

Rattan Lal is a Distinguished University Professor of soil physics in the School of Environment and Natural Resources and director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences/Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center, at The Ohio State University. Before joining Ohio State in 1987, he was a soil physicist for 18 years at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria. Professor Lal’s research interests include erosion-induced changes in soil quality, soils and climate change, soil compaction, conservation tillage, mine soil reclamation, water table management, and sustainable use of soil and water resources of the tropics for enhancing food security. Professor Lal is a fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Third World Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, Soil and Waste Conservation Society, and Indian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He is a member of the United States National Committee on Soil Science of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of several awards, including the International Soil Science Award of the Soil Science Society of America and the Liebig award of IUSS. He is a recipient of honorary degrees from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India; Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway; and Alecu Russo University, Moldova.

B.A. Stewart is a distinguished professor of soil science at the West Texas A&M University, Canyon, Texas, and the director of the Dryland Agriculture Institute. He is a fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, the American Society of Agronomy, and the Soil and Water Conservation Society. He is a recipient of the Unites States Department of Agriculture Superior Service Award, a recipient of the Hugh Hammond Bennett Award of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, and was made an honorary member of the International Union of Soil Sciences in 2008. Dr. Stewart is very supportive of education and research on dryland agriculture. The B.A. and Jane Anne Stewart Dryland Agriculture Scholarship Fund was established in West Texas A&M University in 1994 to provide scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students with a demonstrated interest in dryland agriculture.