The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has decreed 2015 as the International Year of Soils: http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/en/.
The International Year of Soils aims to be a platform for raising awareness of the importance of soils for food security and essential ecosystem functions.
The FAO estimates that an area of soil the size of Costa Rica is lost every year to factors such as erosion, compaction and salinization. One-third of the world’s soils have already been degraded, often in the countries that can least afford to lose that resource. When soil becomes unhealthier, so too do the people who rely on it. Contamination increases and crop yields and human health decline.
Somehow, researchers must also find a way for farmers to feed ever-increasing populations on ever-shrinking amounts of arable land. The solutions must take cost into account, because what works in the lab will not necessarily work in the field if the soil-treatment or conservation approach is too expensive for the people who need it most.
The Department of Soil Science (SU) has a strong research focus on improving soil quality and making the best use of limited fresh water resources in South African agriculture. We have a number of projects on optimizing irrigation management in fruit production, and investigating the issue of dry-land salinization of rivers in the Western Cape due to agricultural activities. Furthermore, several projects have been conducted on the effect of agricultural management practices on soil quality, as well as, the effect of land-use on organic carbon stocks and stabilization. For more information, visit our department’s research webpage: http://www.sun.ac.za/english/faculty/agri/soil-science/research
