Tropical Soils and Food Security: The Next 50 Years
Abstract
An appreciation of the dynamism of the links between soil resources and society provides a platform for examining food security over the next 50 years. Interventions to reverse declining trends in food security must recognize the variable resilience and sensitivity of major tropical soil types. In most agro-ecosystems, declining crop yield is exponentially related to loss of soil quality. For the majority smallholder (subsistence) farmers, investments to reverse degradation are primarily driven by private benefit, socially or financially. "Tragedy of the commons" scenarios can be averted by pragmatic local solutions that help farmers to help themselves.
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Soil quality is a complex functional concept that cannot be measured directly in the field or laboratory and can only be inferred from soil characteristics.
“As soil quality is a complex functional concept and cannot be measured directly in the field or laboratory [5] but can only be inferred from soil characteristics [6], a range of soil parameters or indicators has been identified to estimate soil quality.”
From Comparison of Soil Quality Index Using Three Methods (2014) · cites this paper as [5]
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“As soil quality is a complex functional concept and cannot be measured directly in the field or laboratory [5] but can only be inferred from soil characteristics [6], a range of soil parameters or indicators has been identified to estimate soil quality.”
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- Authors
- Stocking, M. A.
- Affiliations
- University of East Anglia (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Stocking, M. A.
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2003-11-21
- Volume
- 302
- Issue
- 5649
- Pages
- 1356-1359
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W1966747557
- Cited by
- 267
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 36.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (submittedVersion)
- VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Management and Crop Yield
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Science and Environmental Management
- Keywords
- tropical soils, food security, soil degradation, soil quality, crop yield decline, smallholder farmers, subsistence farming, tragedy of the commons, soil resilience, soil conservation
- MeSH terms
- Agriculture, Food Supply, Forecasting, Humans, Soil, Tropical Climate, Ecosystem, Crops, Agricultural
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