Enhancement of area‐specific land‐use objectives for land development

Maps of land‐use classes and soil series were analysed to identify areas having specific priorities with respect to agricultural land‐use analysis. Remote sensing data supported by field investigations was used to generate land‐use and soil maps. Present relationships between soils and associated land cover/use are analysed and patterns in these relationships are identified using GIS techniques. Relationships observed on the basis of a priori knowledge of the area and the available statistics are compared and these relationships in the field and through interviews with farmers are correlated. This allows three land‐use analysis objectives to be formulated: crop management improvement; crop selection; and conservation. The results can be used to focus the efforts of planning and extension services in the area. The method was tested using a participatory rural appraisal in eighteen villages in which the areas for the three land‐use analysis objectives were identified. The findings are that the areas identified for crop management improvement require knowledge about management practices for a specific crop to optimize yield and water use. Most areas identified for crop selection are occupied by smallholder subsistence farmers with insufficient water for irrigation, and a lack of contact with the extension service. In these areas, identifying suitable crops to minimize risk and allow subsistence for the resource‐poor farmers may be the priority. In areas identified for conservation the question to be addressed is whether to grow a crop at all, or to encourage alternative activities. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Soil fertility affected by land use history,relief position,and parent material under a tropical climate in NW-Vietnam

In Vietnam as much as half of the total land area is already degraded by soil erosion and nutrient depletion. In particular, degradation due to deforestation is increasingly affecting mountainous areas in north-western Vietnam. The necessity to safeguard the farmers' livelihoods requires sustainable resource management, which firstly requires a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of resources. The objectives of the present study were to (1) identify the dominant soil types and their vulnerability using elicitation of local soil knowledge, (2) characterise the physical and chemical properties of the soils and (3) link them to the relief position and land use in order to (4) initiate sustainable soil use based on recommendations deduced from objectives (1) to (3). These objectives were achieved also by the elicitation of local knowledge. The final aim of the study was to initiate sustainable soil use based on recommendations for sustainable land use scenarios. The Chieng Khoi commune in Son La province of northern Vietnam was chosen as representative for other erosion-prone Southeast Asian sloping areas. In a participatory approach, combining local and scientific knowledge, sixteen sites were selected, representative for distinct relief positions, parent material (sand stone and silt stone), land use history, and erosion hazard. Chemical (e.g. content of organic matter, nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, base saturation, and plant available phosphorous) and physical properties (e.g. air capacity, plant available water) were used to estimate soil fertility. The predominant reference soil groups in the study area are Alisols and Luvisols, with a high diversity in respect to soil fertility. These soils are locally named ‘red soil’ and ‘black soil’, respectively. Although the main physical processes are erosion and selective sedimentation, farmers tend to underestimate their impact and causes, whereas soil quality was well-evaluated. Soils with high fertility were found on less eroded upper parts of hills and at sites, where agricultural use started only recently. Once degraded by cultivation practices, soils derived from sandstone did not recover even after more than 50 years of fallow. As a result of unsustainable land use, soils on middle and lower slopes are often affected by severe soil erosion, whereas foot slope soils suffer from accumulation of eroded infertile subsoil material as well as stagnic conditions. This study showed that unsustainable land use at upslope landscape positions has a severe impact on downslope areas. The elicitation of local knowledge facilitated the identification of such hot spots, allowing the implementation of spatially targeted conservation measures.     

How to communicate soil expertise more effectively in the information age when aiming at the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Soil use and management play a key role, when maintaining or restoring soil quality, as an estimated 30% of soils in the world suffer from various forms of degradation. Several of the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), approved in 2015 by 195 governments, are land‐related, providing a stimulating challenge for soil research. Unfortunately, soil degradation is still prominent, even though decades of research have resulted in restorative and innovative forms of soil management, generating successful case studies all over the world. Why don't enough farmers adopt such research results? Some argue that the problem of soil degradation is mainly socio‐economic rather than technical. However, this is not correct as the soil–water–plant–climate system raises many basic, unresolved questions about soil behaviour. More attention is needed for information sharing and knowledge building to link the research arena with stakeholders and policy makers. This is particularly urgent because the information revolution, which is fundamentally changing attitudes of increasingly critical stakeholders, presents a challenge to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information on Internet and social media. Continuous interaction with land users in the field and sharing knowledge in a joint‐learning mode is needed more than ever, recognizing that different forms of knowledge can contribute to acceptance in the practice of land‐use innovations and lead to realization of land‐related SDGs. Such forms of interaction take much time, which is of limited availability in current research regimes, and implies a need for change. Soil scientists need assistance from communication experts to facilitate interaction processes.     

应用危险确认模型评估土地管理的可持续发展

New Zealand is highly dependent on its soil resource for continued agricultural production.To avoid depleting this resource,there is a need to identify soils and associated land management practices where there is a risk of soil degradation.Environmental integraity and ecosystem services also need to be maintoained.Accordingly,to ensure sustainable production,The on -and off-site environmental impacts of aldn management need to be identified and managed.We developed a structural vulnerability index for New Zealand soils.This index ranks solis according to their inherent susceptibility to physical degradation when used for agricultural (pasture,forestry and cropping) Purposes.We also developed a rule-based model to assess soil sompaction vulnerability by characterising the combined effects of resistance and resilience,Other soil attributes have been approatised using seven chemical,physical and biological indicators of soil quality.These indicators have been applied in a nation -wide project involving data collection from over 500 sites for a range of land uses.These soil quality data can be interpreted via the World Wide Web -through the in teractive decisionsupport tool SINDI,The land-use impact model is a framework to assess agricultural land management and environmental sustainability,and may be applied to land units at any scale.Using land resource data and information the model explicitly identifies hazards to land productivity and environmental integrity,It utilises qualitative expert and local knowledge and quantitative model-based evaluations to assess the potential environmental impacts of land-management pratices.The model is linked to a geographic information system(GIS),allowing model outputs.such at the environmental impacts of site-specific best management practices,to be identified in a spatially explicit manner,The model has been tested in New Zealand in an area of pastoral land use.Advantages of this risk identification model include:utilising current knowledege of the causes and effects of land-management practices on soil degradation;linking land management practice to both on-and off-site environmental consequences;identifying important gaps in local knowledge,and providing spatially explicit information on the environmental impact of land-management practices.     

水土保持与耕地资源持续利用

耕地资源持续利用是农业和国民经济发展的基础。我国耕地资源的现状为：人均耕地少、优质耕地少、耕地后备资源少、耕地退化严重、耕地浪费严重和耕地保护措施不力；耕地水土流失范围广、面积大，人为因素是加剧耕地水土流失的根本原因；水土流失导致耕地数量减少、质量下降，严重制约粮食生产的发展；加强水土保持，可防止耕地数量减少、质量下降，且能有效地改善耕地环境状况，是实现耕地资源持续利用的有效措施。     

Developing the prerequisites for sustainable land use in Albania

Abstract. When Albania emerged from its seclusion in 1991, the scientific community had its first opportunity to interact with its international counterparts. Soil resource assessment was made with systems developed in the early 1950s, laboratory facilities to provide supporting data were poor, and it was recognized that a new assessment was urgently needed. The country faces a major challenge in reforestation and soil conservation against a background of overgrazing by sheep and goats and clearing of trees and scrubs for fuelwood. Even orchard and olive trees were used as fuelwood during the winters of 1990 and 1991. Since then, gully and rill erosion has accelerated on many of the sloping lands. In addition to reforestation and conservation measures to reduce the pressures on the sloping land, it is necessary to enhance productivity on the fertile valley bottom soils where most of the agriculture is confined. In the recent past, grain yields have declined due to reduced fertilizer use (low purchasing capacity), and poor management practices. More recently productivity has slowly improved, but land degradation, particularly erosion, has visibly increased. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in collaboration with the Land Resources Institute of Albania, initiated work on a new national soil map through collation of existing information and field studies. The land unit for land use planning, evaluation, and general management decisions, is the Major Land Resource Area (MLRA). Each MLRA encompasses geographically associated soils, the majority of which have broadly similar patterns ofclimate, water resources, and land uses. The MLRAs presented here are based on the soil map of Albania at 1 : 200 000 scale. The MLRA information provides an overview of the landscape and natural resources. It can be used to assess land suitability for various crops, opportunities to achieve self sufficiency in food production, selection of areas for both field crops and highvalue crops for export, and identification of appropriate farming system technologies. Each MLRA will have a set of degradation processes which can be flagged, therefore each of them becomes a unit for decision making with respect to investments in research and mitigating technologies. The task is far from complete. Appropriate databases are needed to support the decisions that are being made at national level. To complement the MLRA and related database, decision support systems are needed for the important task of developing policy options.     

RD—Rural Development: An Engineering Perspective on Sustainable Smallholder Farming in Developing Countries

The low productivity of smallholder farming systems and enterprises is attributed mainly to the limited resources of farming households and to the application of inappropriate skills and practices that can lead to land degradation. Land productivity may be raised by improved soil and water management and by mechanization (considering the whole spectrum of power sources) that makes better use of human labour and other resources. However, mechanization programmes, which facilitate soil and water management, have to consider cultural and social factors as well as the immediate technical and economic issues. The livelihoods approach provides a framework for dealing with such considerations, which can be elicited through the participation of farmers in the research and development activities.Examples are given of participatory research (i.e. research in which scientists and farmers participate as partners) to raise smallholder productivity sustainably in India, Zimbabwe and Latin America. Sustainability is a key issue for economic security in the longer term, and depends on many interacting factors both within and outside the tasks of crop production. The most significant of these factors are discussed and it is emphasized that involving farmers provides a reliable means of accounting for them and enabling the farmers to apply new knowledge to raise productivity, but within the contexts of their own livelihood strategies.     

Sharing soil knowledge and evaluating progress in the New South Wales Soil Knowledge Network

The New South Wales (NSW) Soil Knowledge Network (SKN) is a group of retired soil specialist volunteers, who strive to promote the importance of soils through knowledge and expertise. The Soil Knowledge Network is unique and represents a new direction in knowledge sharing using the passion of recently retired soil scientists to support new and early career soil scientists. The terms ‘legacy science’ and ‘sharing legacy knowledge’ are used here to describe SKN activities. This paper reflects on the progress of the SKN and assesses its positive impact on raising the awareness and understanding of soils using qualitative examples from workshops, a survey of soil team coaches at the 2018 National soil judging competition, and metrics from social media and online resources. SKN successes and learning experiences are discussed along with notions of trust, credibility and the importance of people in delivering positive outcomes.     

中国土壤学过去30年在一些关键领域的研究进展

Due to continuous decreases in arable land area and continuous population increases,Chinese soil scientists face great challenges in meeting food demands,mitigating adverse environmental impacts,and sustaining or enhancing soil productivity under intensive agriculture.With the aim of promoting the application of soil science knowledge,this paper reviews the achievements of Chinese scientists in soil resource use and management,soil fertility,global change mitigation and soil biology over the last 30 years.During this period,soil resource science has provided essential support for the use and exploitation of Chinese soil resources,and has itself developed through introduction of new theories such as Soil Taxonomy and new technologies such as remote sensing.Soil fertility science has contributed to the alleviation and elimination of impeding physical and chemical factors that constrain availability of essential nutrients and water in soils,the understanding of nutrient cycling in agroecosystems,and the increase in nutrient use efficiency for sustainable crop production.Chinese soil scientists have contributed to the understanding of the cropland’s role in global change,particularly to the understanding of methane and nitrous oxide emission from rice fields and the effect of elevated carbon dioxide and ozone on rice-wheat system.Soil biology research has progressed in biological N fixation,distribution of fauna in Chinese soils,and bioremediation of polluted soils.A new generation of soil scientists has arisen in the last three decades.The gaps between research and application in these soil science fields are also discussed.     

The impact of indigenous soil and water conservation practices on soil productivity: examples from Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda

Farmers in many parts of Africa use indigenous soil and water conserving (ISWC) practices as an integral part of their farming systems. Farmers have developed such methods which have maintained productivity and contributed to long‐term sustainability, while introduced measures have often been rejected or simply failed to achieve their technical objectives. This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of some ISWC practices in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. An evaluation has been carried out based on farmers' evaluation criteria as well as criteria identified by researchers. Farmers' criteria are often based on the quality of their natural resources (farmers are more likely to conserve those soils that will give the highest return on their investment), the resource level of the household (particularly income levels and labour availability), cropping intensity as well as cultural traditions related to age, education and gender. Of great importance, however, is the need to maintain or increase soil productivity. Methods that conserve moisture, reduce soil erosion, maintain soil fertility and increase productivity, which are socially acceptable and economically viable, are those which farmers favour. ISWC practices often have these qualities but farmers have not always been able to adjust the techniques to rapid changes in farming systems and increasing intensity of land use. Soil productivity and economic modelling indicate that although yields declines are lower when traditional technologies are used, long‐term productivity remains a problem. There is an urgent need to work closely with farmers to improve and develop traditional SWC techniques. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Soil information for agricultural decision making: a New Zealand perspective

Understanding of the soil resource is pivotal to our ability to use, manage and modify soils effectively and responsibly. Yet those who make the most decisions concerning soil use and management – farmers and landholders – rarely have access to reliable soil information at scales suitable for farm decision making. By default, many rely on limited local soil knowledge when making decisions that determine farm performance and environmental impact. Providing detailed nationwide soil information that is appropriate for farm decision making is feasible, as demonstrated by the achievements of several European countries and the USA. For New Zealand, a stratified programme at scales of 1:10 000 for versatile land; 1:25 000 for other agricultural land; and 1:50 000 for non‐domesticated land, would cost NZD $280 million, or NZD $11.2 million per year if spread over the useful life of the information. This investment is small relative to the economic value of agriculture, and necessary if New Zealand is to make meaningful advances in reducing current agri‐environmental trends.     

A web‐based approach to improve collation and communication of complex soil‐landscape data with examples relating to agricultural production,environmental degradation and mineral exploration

This paper provides examples of how to use web‐based techniques to organize and communicate large quantities of complex and varied soil and landscape data. It describes a straightforward method for creating an interactive, web‐based data site that can be used to facilitate more rapid and effective communication between project staff (scientists and managers) and clients (farmers and land managers). This can facilitate teleconferences between team members and be used to communicate information and ideas. Consequently, it reduces costs associated with travel and makes it easier to interpret data during collection. The web‐based data site can be used to deliver easily understood final reports to clients that may have limited background knowledge in a particular area. Additionally, it provides a sufficiently logical and intuitive user interface for use by a wide range of end‐users including farmers, land managers, policy makers and the general public. This approach has been used successfully to provide a framework to coordinate and report on the large quantities of complex data generated during the following three diverse projects: (i) a study of base metal exploration methods in an area impacted by mining and land clearance in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia, (ii) acid drainage issues impacting on agricultural production in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia and (iii) inland acid sulphate soils impacting on land degradation and water quality in wetlands adjacent to the River Murray in the Riverland region of South Australia.     

Laconex: A rule-based implementation to advise on plot-level land conservation in Vilathikulam,Southeastern India

Knowledge about land conservation exists along a spatial continuum, represented at the broadest level (with least depth) by international-level experts who have international-level expertise, and at the narrowest level (with most depth) by the individual farmer with the most site-specific knowledge at the plot level. This continuum covers many different aspects of knowledge about land degradation and its amelioration, including technical and cultural knowledge. This paper reports an effort (one in a series of steps) to gather, formalize, codify, and operationalize knowledge about land conservation from two different levels of the continuum. Land conservation knowledge was elicited from farmers and extension agents in Vilathikulam taluk (an area of contiguous villages) in Tamil Nadu, southeastern India, using semi-structured interviews. The knowledge thus gained was combined with knowledge from the literature on soils and land conservation for the area. This information was organized into factual knowledge and process knowledge, and implemented in the form of general recommendations, constraints, and specific recommendations. The process of arriving at these categories was organized into several steps using a spatial anchor and soil type as keys. These were operationalized in a rule-based computer program (LAnd CONservation EXpert -LACONEX), which offers land conservation advice at the plot level for Vilathikulam taluk , using an expert system development environment.     

不同土地利用模式与管理实践下的土地经济效益响应

农户土地利用要素投入具体表现在土地利用模式与管理实践的差异。不同的土地模式与管理实践不仅是农户对局地自然、社会、经济条件及土地政策的响应,而且还是诱发土地质量变化最直接的外部诱因。该研究以重庆市万洲区万洲居仙试验区作为研究区,选取5种土地利用模式及与之相应的土地管理实践,获取576个0～20 cm表层土壤样品,分析不同土地利用模式下土壤性质变化及其经济效益的响应。结果表明,2003－2005年,试验区紫色土的土壤肥力总体上有所上升,但不同土地利用模式对其贡献程度不一,其顺序为：粮、经、菜间、套土地利用模式（CEV）＞菜、经、菜间、套土地利用模式（VEV）＞果、粮、菜间、套土地利用模式（FCV）＞粮、豆、粮间、套土地利用模式（CBC）＞单一土地利用模式（MONO）;土地经济系数对土壤性质响应明显,其变化方向较一致,土壤保肥供肥能力越强,其土地经济系数越大;菜、经、菜间、套土地利用模式（VEV）更适合于试验区,是农户选择的最优土地利用模式。     

Soil risk maps – Interpreting soils data for policy makers,agencies and industry

Surface runoff, erosion, compaction and the leaching of potential pollutants from land can degrade the soil resource and damage the water environment, reducing crop yields, causing loss of valuable nutrients and organic matter, together with increasing flood risk. Increasingly, it is recognized that scientific information must be translated into practical tools to change practices and protect the soil and water resource. Working alongside agencies in Scotland, we applied a suite of simple, transparent, rule-based models to identify areas most at risk of exporting sediment and pollutants that may degrade water quality based on field-scale (1:25,000) soil maps. The maps have been used by Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Water and Scottish Government to assess soil risks to waters from field to regional scale. The work brought scientists together with policy makers, agencies and the water industry to pool their knowledge to apply these practical tools for decision-making. It highlights the need to apply existing knowledge to answer salient questions. All three examples described show that providing the right type of information, which is based on fundamental soils data, can directly influence the implementation of policies, investment and monitoring decisions and provide evidence in support of government. However, this requires both researchers and agency scientists to develop skills as knowledge brokers and to normalize the use of soil data in everyday agency settings.     

On‐Ground extension of soil information to improve land management

The NSW Soil Knowledge Network (SKN) is a small group of senior ex‐government soil scientists concerned that more needs to be done to improve soil management and stem land degradation with on‐ground extension and training workshops. Widespread attendance and positive feedback from SKN training courses and workshops indicate their extension success and confirm a strong demand for practical independent soil management advice aided by government‐based databases to enhance on‐site workshops. We argue that effective soil knowledge transfer requires interaction and discussion between soil scientists and land managers. This can bridge the gap between data and useful knowledge about soil and land management. The workshop format, where specific soil management issues of specific interest, such as soil acidity, nutrient management or soil sodicity, are discussed between land managers and soil scientists, has been a useful approach. A major concern is that soil scientists with knowledge and practical experience are getting older and fewer in number but few replacements are being appointed in private or government agencies. Also, despite soil electronic data and information being freely available, many land managers and advisors have difficulties accessing and translating soil data into relevant land management decisions. Dialogue with SKN members helps solve this problem because of their hands‐on and face‐to‐face approach with their audiences. The combination of data with effective soil knowledge transfer is successfully exhibited at SKN workshops for advisory groups and the ‘pits and kits’ field days as shown in the paper.     

丘陵区土地流转与整治联动下的资源整合及价值变化

土地顺畅流转并带动各种资源高效整合和土地价值提升是农业产业化可持续发展的关键,该文以重庆市江津区慈云镇小园村和永兴镇黄庄村、旸岩村为研究区,将流转地块图件数据与农村经济统计数据、农户调查数据有机结合,采用收益还原法、市场价格法、机会成本法和影子工程法对耕地经济价值、社会价值、生态价值和发展权价值进行估算,探讨了土地流转与整治联动下土地分散小户经营与集中规模经营的资源整合及价值变化。结果表明:土地流转与整治联动下田块规模扩大、形状趋于规则、田面更加平整,农业基础设施体系完善。田块平均面积、平均形状指数和平整度指数的相对改善程度分别为38.19%、2.54%和30.95%,田间道路密度与沟渠密度指数的绝对改善程度分别达50和75 m/hm2以上;生产成本增加,但综合效率明显提高。土地流转后每公顷人工成本和农资成本分别高出流转前的1.58~24.84倍和1.22~8.04倍,而劳动生产率、土地产出率和资本产出率分别高出流转前的21.46~45.74倍、6.26~14.59倍和1.09~3.71倍,且总投入产出率均高于流转前的1.1倍以上;农业发展投资主体由一元化转为多元化。土地流转前农户自筹资金占100%,土地流转后自筹资金与政府投资占比分别介于24.53%~79.31%和20.69%~75.47%之间,且样区Q1和Q6分别引入了18%和13.54%的社会资金;经济价值与社会价值在土地流转后均提高2倍多,而生态价值降低,平均损失率达34.83%,价值结构不均衡在加剧。因此,在产业政策导向下整合各涉农部门资金集中进行田块规划和农业基础设施改造或续建,建立以土地整治为先导,在市场利益驱动和政府引导下农户自主或委托村集体实现农村土地承包经营权流转的新思路,既促进土地向专业大户、龙头企业、家庭农场顺畅流转,带动产业类型与经营模式双重转变,又有效整合土地、设施、资金、劳动力和农资等农业生产要素,发挥资源整合效率,还极大提升了土地综合价值。     

内蒙古河套灌区盐碱地治理中农户参与意识及其影响因素

内蒙古河套灌区土壤盐渍化现象非常严重,而对于在盐碱地治理中起重要作用的基层农户,其参与意识及影响因素仍不明确。本研究利用参与式调查方法,对内蒙古河套灌区农户的种植结构、管理方式、盐碱地认知程度及参与盐碱地治理意愿等方面进行了深入了解,并利用相对感知强度和多元逻辑回归等方法,分析了农户盐碱地治理的参与意识及主要影响因素。结果表明,河套灌区长期采用大水洗盐的灌溉方式,施肥类型以化肥为主,有机肥施用较少。大水洗盐导致地下水位普遍偏高,春季返盐现象严重;较少施用有机肥不利于土壤结构的改良,可见河套灌区农户没有通过改变种植和管理方式来治理盐碱地的意识。有54%的农户认为自家的耕地土壤盐渍化较为严重,但是很少有农户主动采取治理措施。有72%的受访者表示愿意投入资金治理盐碱地,但能接受的投入成本较低(不超过750元·hm-2)。影响农民参与盐碱地治理意识的主要因素是文化程度(P0.05),另外投入成本过高、缺乏技术支持等也是重要因素。因此,调整农作物管理模式、加强宣传教育、增加对农户的补助及技术支持是河套灌区盐碱地改良的必要方式。该结果可为扩大盐碱地治理的群众基础以及制定相关政策提供科学依据。     

Soil properties characterization for land-use planning and soil management in watersheds under family farming

Environmental monitoring of small, rural watersheds was one of the components of the Natural Resources Management and Rural Poverty Alleviation Program (RS-Rural) in southern Brazil. The purpose of the monitoring was to assess the impact of promoting soil conservation and environment management practices adopted by farmers and funded by the Program. In four small monitored watersheds, in a total of 95 plots representing distinct land use and soil management, surface soil was collected to characterize ground-zero of the Program by determining several soil physical, chemical and microbiological properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows soil physical, chemical and biological properties were decisive in defining the agricultural soils in the rural watersheds with family farming. The sensitivity to chemical properties provides an opportunity to improve soil quality if soil management focuses on altering those properties. Soil management practiced by tobacco farmers leads to rapid, intense degradation of some natural soil properties, especially those related to the dynamics of soil organic matter, compared with more conservationist uses (forest, regrowth, and grassland). Thus, soil management must be reoriented to avoid the progress of degradation and recover soil physical and biological quality. Cover crops and by land-abandonment to allow natural vegetation are important management strategies for the degraded soils used for tobacco production, increasing soil organic matter, nutrients and microbial activity and thus allowing further crop production. In conclusion, watersheds with tobacco cropping have soils with lower quality than when under no-tillage grain production, requiring changes in land use and soil management.