Soil is a vital non-renewable natural resource for food production. Healthy, nutritious, and good-quality food is only produced through healthy soil. As the essential food commodity in Indonesia, rice is mainly cultivated in heavily degraded paddy soil, characterized by low organic C content and available N, P, and K nutrients. The challenges of increasing food demand due to increasing population, narrow agricultural land, and climate change lead to severe pressure on paddy fields. Monitoring soil quality is necessary to prevent the ongoing degradation of rice fields and threaten food security. This paper is a literature review that reveals the importance of evaluating soil quality and determining the limiting factors so that a soil health-based paddy soil management strategy can be sought to sustain food security.

Semarang City is the capital of the Central Java Province, located in the lowlands and directly adjacent to the north side of the Java Sea. This geographical condition makes this city very vulnerable to being affected by floods. This study aims to determine the distribution of flood-prone locations and classify the level of flood susceptibility that occurs in the Semarang City. Quantitative descriptive is the type of research with an overlay method based on scoring parameters related to environmental conditions. These parameters include slope, soil type, rainfall, altitude, land use and river flow buffers. The scored parameters are then entered into the overlay stage with other parameters in the geographic information system (GIS) application to form a map of the flood susceptibility level. The data analysis technique used the descriptive method. The level of flood susceptibility map resulting from this study is in one area of the Pemali-Juana Sub-watershed. The results also show that the scattered highly vulnerable areas in the northern part of Semarang City are areas with low elevations and flat slopes, then dominated by settlement land use that lacks infiltration areas, small river buffer sizes. These are what make the area classified as an area that is very prone to flooding.

<p>Agricultural constraints on sandy soil are poor chemical characteristics and low biological activity resulting in the soil becoming less productive to be planted. One of the efforts to improve the quality of sandy soil are application of mycorrhizae and a soil ameliorant. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of mycorrhizae and a soil ameliorant on soil chemical characteristics and soil biological activity. The experiment was arranged using a Complete Randomized Design that had two factors. The first factor (1) was mycorrhizae dose, without mycorrhizae (M0) and six spores of mycorrhizae/plant (M1), and the second factor (2) was types of soil ameliorant, without ameliorant (S0), cow dung (S1), rock phosphate (S2), biochar (S3), cow dung–rock phosphate (S4), cow dung–biochar (S5), and rock phosphate–biochar (S6). The results indicated that combination of six spores mycorrhizae/plant–cow dung 60 tons ha⁻¹–biochar 25 tons ha⁻¹ (M1S5) increased soil organic carbon (SOC) (235%), available P (675%), cation exchange capacity (CEC) (216%), total glomalin (101%), and easily extracted glomalin (69%), decreased exchangeable sodium percentage (66%), and increased absolutely for root infection and spore density than without mycorrhizae and a soil ameliorant (control). The lowest of SOC in non-mycorrhizae and rock phosphate, available P, CEC, root infection, spore density were found on the control, but the lowest of total glomalin and easily extracted glomalin were found on non-mycorrhizae–rock phosphate. The application of mycorrhizae, cow dung, and biochar improved the sandy soil characteristics.</p>

The increase in temperature due to global warming leads to a rise in abiotic and biotic stresses for plants. Biofilms can aid plants in overcoming multiple environmental stresses. The purpose of this article is to examine biofilm technology, mechanisms, and efficacy in assisting plant performance under multiple stresses. The methodology used to write this literature review is based on references that can be accessed online via Science Direct, Google Scholar, scopus.com, and other sources. The results demonstrated that interaction between plants and microorganisms in the rhizospheres could aid plants in coping with environmental stress caused by the formation of a biofilm on the root surface by a consortium of microorganisms in the rhizosphere. Biofilm provides numerous benefits for plants, including improved soil health, protection from pathogens, promotion of plant growth, assistance with nutrient absorption, decreased use of inorganic fertilizer, and increased environmental tolerance. Biofilm technology is a promising soil management strategy for assisting plant adaptation to environmental stresses, enhancing plant growth and productivity, and promoting soil health.

Organic farming practices are needed to maintain soil fertility and the health of horticultural products on the banks of the Bengawan Solo river in Jangglengan village, Sukoharjo. This community service aims to teach the farming community about organic farming principles and the practice of making liquid organic fertilizer to support healthy horticultural farming on riverbanks in the Jangglengan area. The partner group, the Jangglengan village government, involves 60 farmer representatives. The methods used were focus group discussion, practices for making liquid organic fertilizer, and evaluation. The results of community service activities show that 75% farmers can show good organic waste material for organic fertilizer, and 95% farmers had improved skills and were able to try making fertilizer by themselves. This organic farming socialization is a good start toward implementing good agricultural practices on the land along the Bengawan Solo River in Jangglengan.