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. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Graeme Donovan & Frank Casey, 1998. "Improving Soil Fertility Management in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Bank Publications - Reports 9883, The World Bank Group.
    5. 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.
    6. Kerr, John M., 1996. "Sustainable development of rainfed agriculture in India:," EPTD discussion papers 20, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. 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(01-2), June.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Goletti, Francesco & Gruhn, Peter & 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).
    11. Donovan, G. & Casey, F., 1998. "Soil Fertility Management in Sub-Saharan Africa," Papers 408, World Bank - Technical Papers.
    12. 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).
    13. 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.
    14. Colin Macilwain, 2004. "Organic: Is it the future of farming?," Nature, Nature, vol. 428(6985), pages 792-793, April.
    15. Goletti, Francesco & Gruhn, Peter & Yudelman, Montague, 2000. "Integrated nutrient management, soil fertility, and sustainable agriculture: current issues and future challenges," 2020 vision briefs 67, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    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. 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).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Dinh, Hoang Huu & Wesseler, Justus, 2024. "Decentralization Of Vietnam'S forestlands: The policy process and impact," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    5. 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.
    6. 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).
    7. Yu, Bingxin & Nin-Pratt, Alejandro & Funes, José & Gemessa, Sinafikeh Asrat, 2011. "Cereal production and technology adoption in Ethiopia," ESSP working papers 31, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Baquero-Haeberlin, Irma & Barreto-Triana, Nancy & Espitia-Malagón, Eduardo & Falck Zepeda, José & Fierro-Guzmán, Humberto & López, Nancy, 2006. "An exploration of the potential benefits of integrated pest management systems and the use of insect resistant potatoes to control the Guatemalan Tuber Moth (Tecia solanivora Povolny) in Ventaquemada,," EPTD discussion papers 152, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Medhin, Haileselassie A. & Köhlin, Gunnar, 2008. "Soil Conservation and Small-Scale Food Production in Highland Ethiopia: A Stochastic Metafrontier Approach," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-22-efd, Resources for the Future.
    10. Hagos, Hosaena Gebru & Holden, Stein T., 2013. "Reverse-share-tenancy and Marshallian Inefficiency: Landowners’ bargaining power and sharecroppers’ productivity," IFPRI discussion papers 1270, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. C.S.C. Sekhar, 2021. "Price or income support to farmers? Policy options and implications," IEG Working Papers 420, Institute of Economic Growth.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Abokyi, Emmanuel & Ahorbo, Gerald & Benin, Samuel & Jimah, Kipo & Johnson, Michael E. & Nasser, Gamel & Owusu, Victor & Taabazuing, Joe & Tenga, Albert, 2013. "Revisiting agricultural input and farm support subsidies in Africa: The case of Ghana’s mechanization, fertilizer, block farms, and marketing programs:," IFPRI discussion papers 1300, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Bekele A. Shiferaw & Tewodros A. Kebede & Liang You, 2008. "Technology adoption under seed access constraints and the economic impacts of improved pigeonpea varieties in Tanzania," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(3), pages 309-323, November.
    16. Jannike Wichern & Mark T. Wijk & Katrien Descheemaeker & Romain Frelat & Piet J. A. Asten & Ken E. Giller, 2017. "Food availability and livelihood strategies among rural households across Uganda," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(6), pages 1385-1403, December.
    17. repec:lic:licosd:35614 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Goetghebuer, Tatiana, 2011. "Productive inefficiency in patriarchal family farms: evidence from Mali," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2011 34, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    19. Wouterse, Fleur, 2011. "Social services, human capital, and technical efficiency of smallholders in Burkina Faso:," IFPRI discussion papers 1068, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Riera, Olivia & Swinnen, Johan, 2016. "Household level spillover effects from biofuels: Evidence from castor in Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 55-65.
    21. Prosper F. Bangwayo‐Skeete & Mintewab Bezabih & Precious Zikhali, 2012. "Crop biodiversity, productivity and production risk: Panel data micro‐evidence from Ethiopia," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(4), pages 263-273, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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.