414 Modern Agricultural Reforms
study, giving quick, precise and replicable results, which point to simple remedies.
The results of soil chemistry analyses are easy to interpret; by adding certain
amounts and combinations of fertilizer nutrients, one can expect predictable incre-
ments to production. Moreover, such research gets funding easily, given the inter-
ests of fertilizer producers in such knowledge.
Yet even brief consideration of these three domains affecting soil fertility sug-
gests that the amount of effort going into each, even if not necessarily equal, should
be closer to parity. Any national research programme that deliberately allocated its
scientific resources in the above disproportions would be considered misguided.
Microbial activity is essential for nutrient availability and uptake. When one walks
on ground that has been converted by leguminous species, compost, mulch or
manures from something resembling concrete into absorbent, friable soil under-
foot with good tilth, the contribution of soil microbiology is self-evident. But
studying biological processes is more difficult than assessing differences in soil
structure, and many times more difficult than measuring the chemical composi-
tion of soil samples.
Similarly, plant scientists with whom we have spoken have agreed that 90 per
cent or more of their research effort over the past 50 years has been devoted to
those parts of plants that are above ground, and less than 10 per cent to what is
below ground. Indeed, plant scientists usually suggest that less than 5 per cent of
their research has investigated sub-surface processes and dynamics. Yet any assess-
ment of how plants grow and thrive suggests that a more balanced distribution of
effort is desirable, with much more attention paid to the growth and functions of
roots than in the past. However, just as it has been easier to study the chemistry of
soil, it has been easier to analyse leaves and stalks than to probe the underground
mechanisms of roots for uptake and transport of nutrients and water. Changing
the soil’s temperature by just a few degrees can alter significantly the microbial
populations underground, for example, which makes such research difficult to
replicate and validate.
Modern agricultural research’s focus on soil chemistry and above-ground por-
tions of plants has led to solutions that favour chemical and mechanical means.
The belief that chemical fertilizers are the best way to deal with soil fertility limita-
tions has arisen from – and has reinforced – the image of agriculture as a kind of
industrial enterprise, where producing desired outputs is mostly a matter of invest-
ing certain kinds and amounts of inputs. Consequently, viewing agriculture more
as a biological than as a mechanical process attaches greater value to the use of
organic inputs. In recent years there has been a major increase in the application of
biologically based technologies, such as vermiculture (raising worms) to enhance
soil fertility and ameliorate the negative effects of industrial and agricultural wastes
on soil (Appelhof et al, 1996; Acharya, 1997).
As in most things, combinations of factors are more likely to approach the
optimum than one factor by itself. It is well known that for plants to utilize chem-
ical fertilizer effectively, the soil in their root zone must have substantial capacity
to retain and exchange nutrient cations, and that exchange capacity is considerably