Sustainable Soil Management Is More than What and How Crops Are Grown - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 381

bare soil, though untilled, is capable of providing more runoff and sediment yield in
olive groves under certain conditions should be seriously taken into account while
designing conservation strategies. These have to be driven by their real delivery of
ecosystem services and not just by cost-effective minimal conservation approaches.
The faster adoption of cover crops compared with no-till as a soil conservation mea-
sure in perennial woody crops, and especially in olives ( Table 14.4 ), can therefore be
considered an important step toward the mitigation of soil erosion and degradation.
14.8 POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL, TECHNOLOGY,
AND KNOWLEDGE IMPLICATIONS
An enabling policy and institutional environment is needed to promote sustainable
soil management for agriculture development, which in practice entails a change
in process in which interested stakeholders become engaged to produce, in non-
destructive ways, based on available and affordable resources, agricultural products
desired by the producers, individual groups, and society. However, it is necessary
to implement an enabling environment to promote farmers' interest in undertak-
ing sustainable soil management and production intensification and maintenance of
ecosystem services. For this, given the necessary understanding, the requirements
include effective and integrated development planning and policies backed up by
relevant research and advisory/extension systems, and the mobilization of concerned
stakeholders in all sectors.
14.8.1 P olicy anD i inStitutional S uPPort
Principles of sustainable soil management for agriculture production based on an
ecosystem approach form the basis for good agricultural land use and management.
It indicates the urgent need for a significant change in “mindset” concerning care of
the soil and landscape, after the realization that erosion of soil (deemed a major and
continuing problem) is a consequence rather than a prime cause of land degradation,
in as much as loss of stable soil aggregates and their counterpart spaces in the soil
precedes the accumulation of runoff. This understanding has major implications for
how best to encourage and achieve sustainability of productive land uses. It indicates
the need to respect and make best and careful use of agroecosystem processes, rather
than try to usurp their functions by use of technologies that prove to be inimical to
soil life and therefore not suitable or ecologically sustainable.
Policy coherence and cohesion are critical as all governments already have a num-
ber of institutions involved in caring for the development of their natural resources.
However, the fragmented nature of their organizational arrangement across several
ministries (e.g., Agriculture, Forestry, National Parks, Energy, Water), the discon-
nection from production sectors, and nonworkable relationships within a govern-
ment, often inhibit their full effectiveness.
At national and state levels, the adoption of CA policies is often congruent and
supportive of other policies related to the environment, natural resources, energy
efficiencies, and more recently, climate change. Policy makers need to both align and
document the support, compatibilities, and synergies that may arise from suggested