1. On solid ground Prem S. Bindraban Director ISRIC – World Soil Information Senior Researcher – Agrosystems Research Wageningen UR 3rd Conference on Sustainable Agriculture: The Art of Farming - Innovative Solutions for a Sustainable Mainstream Agriculture SAI, Brussels, 11 May 2010

2. Health & Wealth

3. Land required?

4. Basic production ecological principles Prem Bindraban - water - nutrients + water + nutrients + water - nutrients - water + nutrients Model-plants Based on own experiments P.S. Bindraban

5. Location specific soil management Marcel Galiba Rainfed - fertilizers Rainfed + fertilizers

6. Soil productivity (Living organisms)? Decomposition Improves soil structure Texture Sand Silt Clay Soil Organic Matter Nutrients (Source, CEC) Soil structure (pores) Water holding capacity Infiltration Erosion Land  with appropriate soil characteristics Functional role difficult to assess Loss of biodiversity and SOM due to land clearing

7. Functionality –Important characteristics Cation-Exchange Capacity = f(SOM, Clay) (r 2 > 0.8) Permanent Wilting Point = f(SOM, Clay) (r 2 > 0.8) e.g. Bell and van Keulen, 1995. Soil Sci.Soc. Am. J. 59: 865-871

8. Deteriorating soils Marcel Galiba 11-15 kg N/ha Nutrient depletion No data Low Moderate High Very high 1 ton grain Stoorvogel et al.

9. Fertilizing the Sahel Cereal yields limited by available soil nutrient (- nutrients) Cereal yields limited by available (rain) water (+ nutrients) (Bindraban et al., 1999) Bindraban et al., 1999

10. Google-Earth

11. Zingore, et al., Europ J. Soil Sci 56: 727-736 Soil Carbon loss Extraction of residues from soils detrimental to soil fertility

12. Nutrient interactions Different rates of N with (solid symbols) and without P (open symbols) on a smallholder homefield (circles) and outfield (triangles) on a sandy granitic soil (Zingore et al., 2007, 2008)

13. Interactions with weather Yield response of maize varying with annual rainfall patterns at 3 levels of fertilizer application (0, 17 and 52 kg N/ha) (source: Twomlow, Mugabe et al. 2008)

14. Managing and improving soils is complex (field) Rainfall Irrigation Fertilizatio n Weeds, pests, diseases Productio n Water management Nutrient management Short and long term Risk Nutrient mining Variability Erosion Infestation

16. Soil types – interaction with the environment

17. Soil variation - natural A-horizon E-horizon Bhs-horizon

18. Soil types

20. Site specific management of soils – essential to maintain soil quality

21. Creating a financial and institutional mechanism in water management services that supports rural livelihoods Payment of Environmental Services Green Water Credits

22. wet year Erosion in dry year wet year Blue Water in dry year

23. Soils – provides solid ground for global development issues Climate change Food production Input requirement (N, P, K, H 2 O, …) Degradation De- / Re-forestation (REDD) Bio-energy Marginal lands (micro nutrients, toxicity, salinity, acidity, …) … Good world soil data ?

24. Soil depth GlobalSoilMap.net approach We need your help !! And you may need us.

25. Questions? Prem.Bindraban@wur.nl Prem.Bindraban@wur.nl Director ISRIC – World Soil Information Agrosystems Research – Wageningen UR