Soil Health, Crop Productivity and Sustainability Challenges

A basic assessment of soil health is necessary to evaluate the degradation status and changing trends following different land uses and management interventions. The earliest recorded agricultural activity describes attempts to improve soil properties and crop productivity through application of manures, ash, minerals and other amendments. It is important to distinguish that soil quality is related to soil function, whereas soil health presents the soil as a finite, nonrenewable and dynamic living resource. Soil quality indices are decision tools that effectively combine a variety of information for decision-making. Use of integrated approaches in the management of soil nutrients, water, pest and disease, crop productivity, etc., has been widely discussed in soil health management. The key sustainability factors for high productivity systems in the long run mainly depend on soil health/productivity, which is the function of soil structural stability, hydrological properties, nutrient buildup and retention, efficient nutrient cycling and mobilization to the crop plants.