Advances in Soil Sciences: new volume on soil organic matter and feeding the future

Advances in Soil Sciences publishes new volume on soil organic matter and feeding the future

APNI Scientists co-authored chapter 5 of the volume, which focuses on the effects of soil organic matter and organic resource management on maize productivity and fertilizer use efficiencies in Africa.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) makes up half of the soil organic matter (SOM), along with nitrogen, phosphorus, and a variety of macro and micro elements. SOM, as a dynamic component, provides a variety of ecosystem services that are vital to human well-being and environmental preservation.

This volume of Advances in Soil Sciences, edited by Rattan Lal, explores the environmental and agronomic impacts of SOM and aims to accomplish the following:

– Present impacts of land use and soil management on SOC dynamics

– Discuss effects of SOC levels on agronomic productivity and use efficiency of inputs

– Detail potential of soil management on the rate and cumulative amount of carbon sequestration in relation to land use and soil/crop management

– Deliberate the cause-effect relationship between SOC content and provisioning of some ecosystem services

– Relate soil organic carbon stock to soil properties and processes

– Establish the relationship between soil organic carbon stock with land and climate

– Identify controls of making soil organic carbon stock as a source or sink of CO2

– Connect SOC and carbon sequestration for climate mitigation and adaptation

In chapter 5, the authors outline the extent to which much of the agricultural soils in Africa are hampered by critically low SOC levels. A series of case studies give important context through the description of options available for integrating organic resources with mineral fertilizer via farm-specific approaches to achieving enhanced maize productivity, fertilizer use efficiency, and soil organic matter content.

The entire volume includes:

  1. Enhancing Fertilizer Use Efficiency by Managing Soil Health: Emerging Trends – Amit Roy
  2. Conservation Agriculture: Carbon and Conservation Centered Foundation for Sustainable Production – Don C. Reicosky and Amir Kassam
  3. Relating Soil Organic Carbon Fractions to Crop Yield and Quality with Cover Crops – Upendra M. Sainju, Rajan Ghimire, and Jun Wang
  4. Global Spread of Conservation Agriculture for Enhancing Soil Organic Matter, Soil Health, Productivity and Ecosystem Services – Amir Kassam, Emilio Gonzalez-Sanchez, Rosa M. Carbonell-Bojollo et al.
  5. The effects of soil organic matter and organic resource management on maize productivity and fertilizer use efficiencies in Africa – Shamie Zingore, Samuel Njoroge, Stephen Ichami, Kokou Adambounou Amouzou, James Mutegi, Regis Chikowo, Sudarshan Dutta, and Kaushik Majumdar
  6. Cover cropping for Managing Soil Organic Carbon Content – Amitava Chatterjee
  7. Fertilizer Use in the North China Plains for Improving Soil Organic Matter Content and Crop Yield – Xiangbin Kong, Xiaobing Sun, Ming Lei
  8. Managing Rainfed Rice Farms for Improving Soil Health and Advancing Food Security: A Meta-analysis – Abhishek Jangir, Gaurav Mishra, G.W. Sileshi et al.
  9. Soil organic matter: Bioavailability and bio-fortification of essential micronutrients – Sunil Mandi, Somanath Nayak, Yashbir Singh Shivay et al.
  10. Raising Soil Organic Matter to Improve Productivity and Nutritional Quality of Food Crops in India – R.S. Antil, R.P. Narwal, and B.R. Singh
  11. Role of Legumes in Managing Soil Organic Matter and Improving Crop Yield – Ahmad Latif Virk, Gulab Singh Yadav, Xin Zhao et al.
  12. Managing Soil Organic Carbon in Crop lands of the Eastern Himalayas, India – Anup Das, J. Layek, G.S. Yadav et al.
  13. Soil Organic Carbon Restoration in India: Programs, Policies, and Thrust Areas – Ram Swaroop Meena, Sandeep Kumar, Seema Sheoran et al.
  14. No-Tillage Farming in Maghreb Region: Enhancing agricultural productivity and sequestrating carbon in soils – Ahmad Latif Virk, Gulab Singh Yadav, Xin Zhao et al.
  15. No-till farming for managing soil organic matter in semi-arid, temperate regions: synergies, tradeoffs, and knowledge gaps – Qiuping Peng and David R. Huggins 

Full citation:

Soil Organic Matter and Feeding the Future: Environmental and Agronomic Impacts. 2021 Edited by R. Lal, CRC Press. DOI: 10.1201/9781003102762

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