IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ess/wpaper/id7599.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Soil Health: Issues and Concerns - A Review

Author

Listed:
  • B. Suresh Reddy

Abstract

This paper brings out the importance of soil fertility management (SFM) with respect to agricultural production and livelihood contribution to the rural people. It looks into the farmers' own knowledge systems and how they contribute to the sustainable soil fertility management. The review clearly brings to the fore the fact that livestock is crucial to maintain soil fertility, supply of draught power, food for the family and to increase the agricultural productivity, especially in dry lands. It examines the role of social, economic, ecological and livelihood factors in soil fertility management. Soil fertility management options available to farmers are being undermined by government policies that primarily focus on chemical fertiliser-based strategies. The paper suggests that government policies related to soil fertility management be more enabling interms of creating conditions for the use of locally available resources, skills and knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • B. Suresh Reddy, 2015. "Soil Health: Issues and Concerns - A Review," Working Papers id:7599, eSocialSciences.
  • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:7599
    Note: Institutional Papers
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.esocialsciences.org/Download/repecDownload.aspx?fname=A2015108115436_39.pdf&fcategory=Articles&AId=7599&fref=repec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shenggen Fan & Ashok Gulati & Sukhadeo Thorat, 2008. "Investment, subsidies, and pro‐poor growth in rural India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(2), pages 163-170, September.
    2. Gruhn, Peter & Goletti, Francesco & Yudelman, Montague, 2000. "Integrated nutrient management, soil fertility, and sustainable agriculture: current issues and future challenges," 2020 vision discussion papers 32, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Sharma, Vijay Paul, 2012. "Dismantling Fertilizer Subsidies in India: Some Issues and Concerns for Farm Sector Growth," IIMA Working Papers WP2012-09-01, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    4. R. Lal, 2009. "Soil degradation as a reason for inadequate human nutrition," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 1(1), pages 45-57, February.
    5. Graeme Donovan & Frank Casey, 1998. "Improving Soil Fertility Management in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Bank Publications - Reports 9883, The World Bank Group.
    6. Stein Holden & Bekele Shiferaw & John Pender, 2001. "Market Imperfections and Land Productivity in the Ethiopian Highlands," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 53-70, September.
    7. Kerr, John M., 1996. "Sustainable development of rainfed agriculture in India:," EPTD discussion papers 20, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Donovan, G. & Casey, F., 1998. "Soil Fertility Management in Sub-Saharan Africa," Papers 408, World Bank - Technical Papers.
    9. Raut, Nani & Sitaula, Bishal K., 2012. "Assessment of Fertilizer Policy, Farmers’ Perceptions and Implications for Future Agricultural Development in Nepal," Sustainable Agriculture Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 1(2).
    10. David J. Walker, 1982. "A Damage Function to Evaluate Erosion Control Economics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(4), pages 690-698.
    11. Singh, Karam & Singh, Nirmal & Singh, R. P., 1996. "Utilisation and Development of Common Property Resources - A Field Study in Punjab," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 51(1-2), June.
    12. Bina Agarwal, 1997. "Environmental Action, Gender Equity and Women's Participation," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 28(1), pages 1-44, January.
    13. Colin Macilwain, 2004. "Organic: Is it the future of farming?," Nature, Nature, vol. 428(6985), pages 792-793, April.
    14. Gruhn, Peter & Goletti, Francesco & Yudelman, Montague, 2000. "Integrated nutrient management, soil fertility, and sustainable agriculture," 2020 vision briefs 67, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Edward B. Barbier, 1990. "The Farm-Level Economics of Soil Conservation: The Uplands of Java," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 66(2), pages 199-211.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Diriba Shiferaw G., 2017. "Water-Nutrients Interaction: Exploring the Effects of Water as a Central Role for Availability & Use Efficiency of Nutrients by Shallow Rooted Vegetable Crops - A Review," Journal of Agriculture and Crops, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 3(10), pages 78-93, 10-2017.
    2. Tanveer A. Butt & Bruce A. McCarl & Alpha O. Kergna, 2005. "Policies for reducing agricultural sector vulnerability to climate change in Mali," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(6), pages 583-598, November.
    3. Duku, Moses Hensley & Gu, Sai & Hagan, Essel Ben, 2011. "Biochar production potential in Ghana—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 3539-3551.
    4. Ian A. COXHEAD, 1995. "Economic Modeling Of Land Degradation In Developing Countries," Staff Papers 385, University of Wisconsin Madison, AAE, revised May 1996.
    5. Cocchi, Horacio & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Quiroga, Ricardo E., 2004. "Farm Benefits And Natural Resource Projects In Honduras And El Salvador," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20328, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Holden, Stein T., 2018. "The Economics of Fertilizer Subsidies," CLTS Working Papers 9/18, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 16 Oct 2019.
    7. Akber, Nusrat & Paltasingh, Kirtti Ranjan & Mishra, Ashok K., 2022. "How can public policy encourage private investments in Indian agriculture? Input subsidies vs. public investment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    8. Farooq Shah & Wei Wu, 2019. "Soil and Crop Management Strategies to Ensure Higher Crop Productivity within Sustainable Environments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-19, March.
    9. Crawford, Eric W. & Jayne, Thomas S. & Kelly, Valerie A., 2005. "Alternative Approaches for Promoting Fertilizer Use in Africa, with Particular Reference to the Role of Fertilizer Subsidies," Staff Paper Series 11557, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    10. Alice Issanchou & Karine Daniel & Pierre Dupraz & Carole Ropars-Collet, 2018. "Soil resource and the profitability and sustainability of farms: A soil quality investment model," Working Papers SMART 18-01, INRAE UMR SMART.
    11. Coxhead, Ian A. & Demeke, Bayou, 2006. "Modeling Spatially Differentiated Environmental Policy in a Philippine Watershed: Tradeoffs between Environmental Protection and Poverty Reduction," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21115, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    12. Franco, Juan Agustin & Calatrava-Requena, Javier, 2008. "Adoption and diffusion of no tillage practices in Southern Spain olive groves," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44014, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. repec:ags:midips:140910 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Wisdom Akpalu & Mintewab Bezabih, 2015. "Tenure Insecurity, Climate Variability and Renting out Decisions among Female Small-Holder Farmers in Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-16, June.
    15. Zhihai Yang & Amin W. Mugera & Ning Yin & Yumeng Wang, 2018. "Soil conservation practices and production efficiency of smallholder farms in Central China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1517-1533, August.
    16. Abdelgalil, E.A. & Cohen, S.I., 2007. "Economic development and resource degradation: Conflicts and policies," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 107-129, June.
    17. Abdelgalil, E. A. & Cohen, S. I., 2001. "Policy modelling of the trade-off between agricultural development and land degradation--the Sudan case," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 23(8), pages 847-874, November.
    18. Díaz, Juan-José & Saldarriaga, Victor, 2023. "A drop of love? Rainfall shocks and spousal abuse: Evidence from rural Peru," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Pagoulatos, Angelos & Debertin, David L. & Sjarkowi, Fachrurrozie, 1987. "Soil Erosion and Yield Uncertainty in the Soil Conservation Decision," Agricultural Economics Research Reports 140066, University of Kentucky, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    20. Klasen, Stephan & Reimers, Malte, 2017. "Looking at Pro-Poor Growth from an Agricultural Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 147-168.
    21. World Bank, 2007. "Determinants of the Adoption of Sustainable Land Management Practices and Their Impacts in the Ethiopian Highlands," World Bank Publications - Reports 7938, The World Bank Group.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:7599. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Padma Prakash (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.esocialsciences.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.