370 Ecological Restoration and Design
4.3 Knowledge-driven change
Uphoff et al (2006) was written for researchers who have a direct interest in prac-
tice and for practitioners who appreciate the fruits of research. We have tried to
meet high academic and scientific standards, but the motivating concern was to
produce and share knowledge of practical value. The contributions have been
intended to speak to the interests and needs of persons who are seeking to get
most, and most sustainable, benefits from the resources available to the agricul-
tural sector and for the producers within it, including particularly the most
resource-limited ones.
More productive and sustainable strategies will derive from a thorough knowl-
edge and appreciation of the biological nature of soil systems. These are shaped by
physical characteristics, and their transactions are made in the coin of chemistry.
But the fundamental determinants of fertility remain the soil biota that have
co evolved symbiotically with plant root systems and with plant shoots and animals
above ground for 400 million years.
This reality can be overlooked but it cannot be repealed. It can be compensated
for, if undercut, by use of external inputs. Such a strategy can be and often has been
successful, and it will continue to be beneficial in many places for many farmers, but
its productivity is abating. Fortunately, the opportunities that postmodern agricul-
ture is opening up in the 21st century are not limited to either richer or poorer farm-
ers. The ubiquity and synergy of genetic potentials in plants and soil organisms is
widely and freely available to all those who understand and respect them.
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