Assessing the Role of Soils When Developing Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems Focused on Achieving the UN-SDGs and the EU Green Deal

Abstract

The general concept of sustainable development has been specified in terms of goals, targets, and indicators by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015, followed by the Green Deal of the European Union in 2019. The focus on targets and indicators does, however, not address the issue as to how these goals can be achieved for land-related SDGs in the real world, and attention in this paper is therefore focused on how land management can contribute to providing ecosystem services in line with the aims of the SDGs and the Green Deal. Agricultural production systems should at least produce healthy food (SDG2 and 3), protect ground- and surface water quality (SDG6), mitigate climate change (SDG13), avoid soil degradation, and support biodiversity (SDG15). The corresponding ecosystem services are discussed with particular emphasis on the role of soils, which are characterized in terms of soil health, defined as: contributing to ecosystem services in line with the SDGs and the Green Deal. Appropriate management, as developed and proposed by researchers working jointly with farmers in living labs, can only be realized when it is part of sound long-term business plans, supported by independent advice that is focused on farmers’ concerns based on the requirements for adaptive management. The research effort in living labs, addressing “wicked” problems, needs to be judged differently from classical linear research. As the development of successful ecosystem services requires an interdisciplinary research effort based on a systems analysis, SDG-oriented soil research in the future should be focused on: (i) presenting suitable data to the interdisciplinary effort beyond standard data to be found in existing databases; (ii) using soil types as “carriers of information” to allow extrapolation of results; (iii) providing data with a comparable degree of detail when analyzing the various ecosystem services, and (iv) revisit past experiences in soil survey and soil fertility research when contact with farmers was intense, as is again needed in future to realize ecosystem services in line with the SDGs and the Green Deal.

Effects of innovative long-term soil and crop management on topsoil properties of a Mediterranean soil based on detailed water retention curves

“…For instance, in the case of fine-textured undisturbed soils, the SWRC usually presents the shape of an S (Kosugi et al, 2002). Following Brooks and Corey (1964), in J-shaped SWRCs the best fit occurs with an exponential function. But, for S-shaped SWRCs, the fit with exponential functions is poor (Milly, 1987;van Genuchten and Nielsen, 1985), and it is recommended to employ sigmoidal-type functions such as the van Genuchten equation (van Genuchten, 1980).…”

“…In summary, and from a general point of view of the sustainability of agricultural management and the multifunctionality of soils (Bouma et al, 2019), these results indicate that OPM did not only result in differences in water retention and soil structure that can contribute to improve water-use efficiency and crop productivity but also in enhanced biodiversity and increased SOC storage. OPM seems from this perspective to be a useful tool in the face of the present challenges and commitments of agriculture in Europe and worldwide (Bouma et al, 2022;Panagos et al, 2022).…”

“…One relevant issue in the assessment of the effects of soil management on soils is the increasing need to co-learn with farmers and other stakeholders (Bouma, 2014) and to identify the consequences of changes in land use in actual field conditions. Likewise, this assessment needs to account for as much soil functions as possible (Bünemann et al, 2018), as recently suggested from the perspective of linking soils with sustainable development goals (SDGs; Lal et al, 2021;Bouma et al, 2021).…”

“…Based on the analysis of detailed SWRCs and soil structure (i.e., the size distribution of stable macro-and microaggregates) and its consequences for soil water retention, the evaluation includes other complementary aspects relevant to soil functioning and SDGs by assessing soil organic C storage (climate regulation, SDG #13), the soil biological diversity (biodiversity loss, SDG #15) and (as far as available from farmers) yields (food security, SDG #2). This evaluation aims to incorporate therefore real-case field-measured indicators, in line with the recent recommendations of the new European Agricultural Policy (Bouma et al, 2022;Panagos et al, 2022).…”

Pengembangan Asesmen Kinerja Keterampilan Inquiry Laboratory pada Permasalahan Biologi Abad ke-21

“…Beberapa materi pada pembelajaran biologi memiliki kesamaan konten dari sebagian tujuan permasalahan pada abad ke-21, salah satunya pada permasalahan lingkungan. Kerusakan lingkungan berdampak pada tidak seimbangnnya ekosistem yang berpengaruh mahluk hidup (Bouma et al, 2021;Hawken et al, 2021). Rusaknya lingkungan menyebabkan berbagai masalah serius bagi kehidupan, khususnya manusia (Hadiyati & Cindo, 2020).…”