Toward Sustainability A Plan for Collaborative Research on Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (1991) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1. Defining the Need
1. Defining the Need
Pages 9-16
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 9... ...
These include soil erosion and degradation, nonpoint source water pollution, groundwater contamination, salinization, aquifer depletion, loss of biological diversity, resistance to pesticides, and human health risks associated with pesticide application and residues.
|
From page 10... ...
As some areas exhaust their supplies of arable land, inappropriate land use practices are causing massive soil erosion, critical losses of biological diversity, and general degradation of the natural resource base. In the tropics, where these forces are especially potent, the burning of rain forests to clear land for agriculture adds to the threat of global warming.
|
From page 11... ...
Other species that depend on them for shade and nutrients cannot survive. The simplified soil and root structure is less able to absorb the moisture of seasonal storms, and the subsequent rapid runoff accelerates soil erosion, further inhibiting recovery.
|
From page 12... ...
The interrelated issues of population growth, intensified land use, environmental decline, and agricultural productivity at local and regional levels raise concerns about food security and quality, public health, and other long-term development problems. The issues are pertinent in all regions, but they are of special concern in the developing nations of the tropics, where the economic constraints and the development needs of rapidly growing human populations are most pressing.
|
From page 13... ...
"High rates of soil loss are causing declines in soil productivity worldwide, and most nations do not have sound land use policies to protect their soil and water resources.... The limited availability of fossil energy resources and their cost, which is expected to increase, make it unlikely that fertilizers and other inputs can offset severe land and water degradation problems, especially in impoverished nations" (Pimentel et al., 1987~.
|
From page 14... ...
THE RESEARCH CHALLENGE: ADOPTING A SYSTEMS-BASED APPROACH Fundamentally, achieving sustainable agriculture under the mounting pressure of human population growth will demand that the world's agricultural productive capacity be enhanced while its resource base is conserved. If the well-being of the world's less advantaged people is to improve in any lasting sense, long-range concerns about food security and the health of natural resources must be addressed in planning future economic and social development.
|
From page 15... ...
. In the even broader realm of international sustainable agriculture and natural resource management, the integrated research design, interdisciplinary participation, and systemwide perspective that the systems approach entails are necessary if the complex nature of sustainability is to be comprehended, the scientific basis of sustainability understood, and the threats to sustainability identified and addressed (Edwards, 1987)
|
From page 16... ...
Biological diversity, for example, is important to topsoil retention, nutrient cycling, and pest management in all agroecosystems. As these commonalities become better understood, they are likely to lead to global principles for the design of sustainable agricultural systems.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.