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Issues for More Sustainable Soil System
Management
Norman Uphoff, Andrew S. Ball, Erick C. M. Fernandes,
Hans Herren, Olivier Husson, Cheryl Palm, Jules Pretty,
Nteranya Sanginga and Janice E. ThiesAssessing sustainability is more difficult than evaluating productivity because it
depends on future evidence, which by definition cannot be known in the present.
Certainly sustainability is an aspiration for both the first and second paradigms for
soil system management. There are reasons for questioning the sustainability of
Green Revolution technologies, with their heavy dependence on external inputs.
Nobody can know the future prices for petroleum, which will influence the cost of
energy for mechanized production and of inorganic fertilizers and many agro-
chemicals, but recent data give no grounds for an optimistic view of agricultural
input prices. Biotechnology advances could possibly overcome the stagnation of
cereal yields in most major producing countries at some time in the future, but this
is uncertain.
There are no long-term or aggregate data to support any claims of sustainabil-
ity for second-paradigm approaches since these are relatively new. No better claims
can be made for first-paradigm agriculture. What time-series data are available on
specific innovations indicate that higher yield levels with biologically based man-
agement are sustainable so long as farmers can maintain their inputs of biomass to
soil systems that support and enhance levels of soil organic matter. Reduced use of
inorganic fertilizers and of agrochemicals together with increased application of
organic matter to the soil should have positive effects on soil biota and on associ-
ated agricultural production so long as essential nutrient levels can be sustained in
soil systems. This is an empirical issue to be addressed.
Reprinted from Biological Approaches to Sustainable Soil Systems by Uphoff, Ball, Fernandes, Herren,
Husson, Palm, Pretty, Sanginga and Thies. Copyright 2006 by Taylor and Francis Group LLC – Books
in the format other book via Copyright Clearance Center.