Stressed ecosystems and sustainable agriculture
By: editors S.M. Virmani ... [et al.].
Contributors: Virmani, S. M.
Publisher: Science Publishers
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Lebanon, NH
Language: eng
Number of pages: 441
Subjects: Agricultural ecology -- Congresses.; Sustainable agriculture -- Congresses.; Soil degradation -- Congresses.
Description: Amongst the various concerns on sustaining agriculture to meet the expanding food needs of the future, the question of maintaining and improving ecosystem quality has emerged as an important issue. Global changes due to human pressure on the resource-limited world are threatening to degrade the carrying capacity of land. Ecosystems that are degraded or those that have reached a stage of degradation such that their original biotic communities (or agriculture) cannot be supported any longer are considered as stressed. Degradation results when land-use requirements are not matched by land qualities. Stressed environments occur mainly in developing semi-arid tropical countries where a web of interrelated reinforcing factors maintains rural poverty, unplanned population growth, expansion of farming into marginal lands, deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution, degradation of land and unsustainable agriculture. An eminent group of scientists met in Hyderabad, India, in February 1993 to devise alternate systems of land management that would restore degraded lands back to productivity, optimize natural resource use, and stabilize dryland production. The set of 34 invited papers included in this volume attempt to provide insights in a holistic multidisciplinary approach on the constraints that undergird technologies for sustainable land-use in stressed environments.
Notes: Report on a workshop held at Hyderabad, India, February 15-20, 1993 -- Preface.

Includes bibliographical references.