Soil and Crop Management Strategies to Ensure Higher Crop Productivity within Sustainable Environments

Abstract

The rising population and reduction in the amount of land and some other resources have created tremendous pressure on current agricultural producers to meet the increasing food demands. To cope with this challenge, certain key inputs, such as fertilizers and other chemicals, are overused, which are worsening the surroundings. This intensive agricultural production without adherence to ecological sustainability has led to declining soil health, land degradation, and severe environmental problems. So, future efforts to feed the growing population should aim for greater agricultural production within sustainable environments. In this regard, innovative steps are needed, as business-as-usual policies lack the potential to cope with these challenges. The concept of agricultural sustainability and various soil and crop management strategies (SCMS) that have been designed to optimize crop yield under sustainable environmental conditions are discussed, including nutrient management, site specific nutrient management (SSNM), integrated nutrient management (INM), integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), integrated soil-crop system management (ISSM), ridge-furrow mulching systems (RFMS), sustainable water management (SWM), conservation agriculture (CA), sustainable land management (SLM), vertical/sky farming, and integrated crop management, and breeding strategies as well as other approaches combined with technological and behavioural changes. The present review suggests that a sustainable production system can be developed by combining the multifaceted efforts under SCMS practices with short- and long-term preventive measures. Reducing chemicals’ usage, such as that of fertilizers and pesticides, plus improvements in the crop input use efficiency could minimize greenhouse gases emissions while protecting the environment. Sustainable agriculture holds promise for humankind and the planet Earth, and it can be successful if all developed and developing nations stand together to seek ‘our common future’ to produce more food while generating less environmental pressure.

A natural tropical freshwater wetland is a better climate change mitigation option through soil organic carbon storage compared to a rice paddy wetland

“…The net primary productivity of Phragmites in tropical wetlands has also been reported, ranging from 0.88 to 2.2 kg m −2 yr −1 [43,44]. Though data on net primary productivity of rice plants is not readily available due to great variations in soil and cropping management practices [45], an estimate by [46] showed that it's over six times less than that of macrophytes in natural wetlands. We obtained biomass densities in all sections of the natural section of the wetland in an order of magnitude greater than in the rice fields, supporting the high productivity of natural wetlands.…”

Silicon in Horticultural Crops: Cross-talk, Signaling, and Tolerance Mechanism under Salinity Stress

“…At this EC e, most of the crops are affected, while lower EC e s can also be unfavorable to certain crops [3,6]. Thus, strategies to develop tolerant varieties of plants to abiotic stresses are a major challenge so as to surpass the depleting food production system and meeting the global food demands [7].…”

The role of ridge‐furrow with plastic film mulching system on stem lodging resistance of winter wheat in a dry semi‐humid region

“…Modern agriculture is faced with new challenges in the form of climate change and a growing global population, both of which has increased the demand for water usage. As water is one of the most important reserves for the sustainable development of agriculture, maximizing crop production per unit of water utilization has become a vital strategy to ensure future food security in dry semi‐humid regions (Shah & Wu, ; Wu & Ma, ). Increasing water‐use efficiency (WUE) through water‐saving technologies with efficient use of precipitation instead of relying on irrigation has gained extensive attention worldwide (Gan et al., ; Li et al., ).…”

“…Furthermore, the ridges mulched with plastic film reduce heat exchange between the soil and ambient air, leading to increased topsoil temperature of mulched ridges and thus promoting seedling emergence and crop growth in winter wheat, except for a few studies reporting the negative effect of plastic film mulching in spring wheat (Li, Wang, & Xu, , , ). Additionally, the RFPFM system has several other advantages, such as reduced weeds and pests pressure, more efficient use of soil nutrients and solar radiation, better crop growth, and higher yield performance (Gan et al., ; Li et al., ; Shah & Wu, ; Zhang et al., ).…”

“…Lodging also poses a potential health risk in the form of fungal infection of grains and the subsequent development of mycotoxins within a lodged canopy (Berry et al., ; Ma, Subedi, Xue, & Voldeng, ; Wu & Ma, ; Subedi, Ma, & Xue, ; Wu et al., ). Given the current food scarcity that has become a serious global problem as a consequence of constantly increasing world population and global climate change, dual‐goal strategies to reduce incidence of lodging while sustaining a higher crop yield are important for fulfilling the global food demand (Foulkes et al., ; Shah & Wu, ).…”