Issues for More Sustainable Soil System Management 367Training
Because these new approaches are knowledge-intensive, and require some chang-
ing of mindset as well as having factual information, a principal constraint for their
spread is a lack of understanding not just of techniques but also of rationale and
principles. The practices being proposed often go against what has been taught in
schools and universities for 150 years. Yet they are supported by a huge amount of
research and now-spreading practice.
Training is probably too narrow a concept for what is needed, though the sub-
stance of biologically based agricultural thinking should be incorporated into
training programs around the world. These new practices represent a shift in para-
digm, from input-dependent, exogenously focused production systems to ones
that are soil-system-based and endogenously focused. They adopt an ecological
perspective that appreciates the interactions among organisms, seeking to maxi-
mize positive synergies and to control or eliminate negative effects. The expanding
field of biotechnology can become compatible with this perspective if it becomes
less preoccupied with manipulating the genotypes of individual species and appre-
ciates more the interaction among species. Genes are of course important, but a
genocentric view of biology is being superseded by concerns with G × E interde-
pendence, studying genetic interactions with environment. Thus, the relearning is
not just for farmers but also for scientists and extension workers.
4 New Directions for Agriculture in the 21st Century
Brazil is a country held up as a paragon of modern agriculture, with a dynamic and
productive agricultural sector, expanding through many large-scale operations. Yet
as seen in Uphoff et al (2006), it is also a country where some of the most interest-
ing large-scale applications of the new, biologically based thinking about agricul-
tural improvement can be found (Boddey et al, 2003). Brazil is a country where
agriculture is not subsidized as in North America and Europe. Indeed, it faces
significant disadvantages of transportation costs given its global location and the
location of many of its farming areas. Still, Brazil is becoming more and more
competitive in the world market.
The area under newer systems of production has now reached at least 22 mil-
lion ha in Brazil, growing by 1–2 million ha yr–1. Use of conservation agriculture
techniques has spread even faster in the US, more than doubling between 1997
and 2003 and now covering an area 50 per cent more than in Brazil, according to
Derpsch and Benites (2004). Some of the ‘negative externalities’ of Brazil’s modern
agriculture, employing a high degree of mechanization and soil tillage along with
heavy inputs of mineral fertilizers and agrochemicals, are becoming too great to be
ignored, with adverse impacts on soil quality and microclimates. The rising eco-
nomic costs of conventional production methods are pushing Brazilian farmers to
reevaluate their technical options.