Sustainable Soil Management Is More than What and How Crops Are Grown - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 355

crop-soil-water-nutrient-pest-ecosystem management practices. These practices
are locally devised and adapted to capture a range of productivity, socioeconomic,
and environmental co-benefits of agriculture and ecosystem services at the farm,
landscape (watershed), and provincial or national scale (Pretty 2008; Kassam et al.
2009; Godfray et al. 2010; FAO 2011b; Pretty et al. 2011).
However, different from the tillage-based interventionist approach to farming
described above, there are now many production systems with a predominantly eco-
system or agroecological approach generally characterized by minimal disturbance
of the ecosystem, with both natural and managed biodiversity in order to provide
food, raw materials, and ecosystem services. Biologically healthy soils underpin
these systems. Thus, in order to achieve sustainable intensification, a production sys-
tem must be able to support and maintain the ecosystem functioning, and services
derived from it, by limiting interventions (which may appear necessary for intensify-
ing the production) to levels that do not disrupt these functions.
Sustainable production systems based on ecosystem approaches offer a range of
productivity, socioeconomic, and environmental benefits to producers and to society
at large. To achieve the increased productivity required to meet 2050 food demands
and the range of ecosystem services expected by society, sustainable production sys-
tems should be based on five technical principles:

• Simultaneous achievement of increased agricultural productivity and

enhanced ecosystem services.

• Enhanced input-use efficiency, where key inputs include water, nutrients,

pesticides, energy, land, and labor.

• Reduced dependency from external inputs derived from fossil fuels (such

as mineral fertilizer and pesticides) and preference for alternatives (such as
biological nitrogen fixation and integrated pest management).

• Protection of soil, water, and biodiversity through use of minimum distur-

bance of natural systems; interventions must not have accumulative effects
but must have an impact and frequency lower than the natural recovery
capacity of the ecosystem.

• Use of managed and natural biodiversity to build and/or rebuild system

resilience to abiotic, biotic, and economic stresses.

Over time, systems following these principles will show increasing production
levels and decreasing levels of input use. In many degraded situations, better reten-
tion of incoming water—its capture, infiltration, and in-soil storage at plant-available
tensions—is an important achievement, which makes possible the optimum func-
tioning of the entire soil/plant system.

14.5.1 c onServation a griculture aS a B aSe for S uStainaBle
S oil m anagement anD P roDuction i intenSification
The farming practices required to implement the above-mentioned key principles
will differ according to local conditions and needs but will have the following
required characteristics, based on optimizing conditions in the root zone as being