Soil Constraints and Productivity

Identifying, interpreting, and managing soil constraints are major challenges, especially when multiple constraints occur in the same soil at various depth zones. Although amelioration tools and strategies are available to manage some of these constraints, field adoption of these technologies is a major challenge to the farming community. Soil Constraints and Productivity helps in identifying and understanding soil constraints, focusing on management practices to alleviate problems associated with these restrictions, and their impacts on crop productivity.

Soil Constraints and Productivity aims to:

• Describe various strategies suitable for mitigating soil constraints
• Provide data on cost-benefit analysis of managing soil constraints
• Provide case studies of managing soil constraints to increase productivity

Soil is essential for the doubling of major grain production proposed to be necessary to avoid major food security collapses in the future. This book will be a key resource for soil and environmental scientists, farmers, students majoring in agricultural and environmental sciences, and crop consultants.

Professor N.S. Bolan is currently serving as the Professor of Soil Science at the School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia. He also served as the Program Leader, Cooperative Centre for High Performance Soils (www.soilcrc.com.au), Chair in Environmental Science (2007–2015) and Dean of Graduate Studies (2008–2010) at the University of South Australia (2007–2015), Professor of Soil Science at Massey University, New Zealand (1984–2006).

Professor N.S. Bolan’s teaching and research interests include agronomic value of manures, fertilizers and soil amendments, soil acidification, nutrient and carbon cycling, pesticide and metal pollutants interactions in soils, greenhouse gas emission, soil remediation, mine site revegetation, and waste management. Nanthi is a Fellow of American Soil Science Society, American Society of Agronomy and New Zealand Soil Science Society and was awarded the Communicator of the Year Award by the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Sciences. He has supervised more than 50 postgraduate students and was awarded the Massey University Research Medal for excellence in postgraduate students’ supervision. He has published more than 400 book chapters and journal papers with an H index of 112 and total citations of 51,830 (Google Scholar) and is one of the Web of Science Globally Highly Cited Researchers for 2018–2022. He has served as Associate Editor of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, and Technical Editor of Journal of Environmental Quality.

M.B. Kirkham is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University and a graduate of Wellesley College (B.A.) and the University of Wisconsin, Madison (M.S. and Ph.D.). Professor Kirkham’s research deals with water movement in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and uptake of heavy metals by plants grown on contaminated soil. Professor Kirkham has written three textbooks dealing with soil-plant-water relations and teaches a graduate-level class on soil-plant-water relations. In addition, Professor Kirkham is the author or coauthor of over 300 contributions to scientific publications and is on the editorial boards of 16 journals. Professor Kirkham has received recognitions, including being named fellow of five societies and elected Honorary Member of the International Union of Soil Sciences.