World soils and global issues

摘要

Human welfare is intimately lined to soil quality and its management. Principal global issues of the 21st century, whose solution to a great extent depends on sustainable management of world soils, include food insecurity and hidden hunger, global warming and carbon sequestration, water scarcity and eutrophication, soil degradation and desertification, energy scarcity and biofuels, excessive urban and industrial wastes, and environmental pollution. There exists a direct link between these global issues and sustainable use of world's finite and fragile soil resources, which must never be taken for granted. Scientists in Soil & Tillage Research and members of ISTRO may need to consider the following issues in prioritizing their long-term research plans.