Beyond Gaining Access to Agronomic Inputs.

Rising farm inputs costs, a declining arable land base and unpredictable climate patterns call for more efficient land use management and agricultural input strategies to feed the world’s growing population. While developed nations have provided leadership in natural resources assessments and management, most developing countries have lagged behind or failed to make similar commitments. Progress toward natural resource conservation, crop yield improvements, climate change mitigation require soils information. Threats to land use sustainability such as soil erosion, though obvious to the casual observer, have failed to generate adequate funding or interest to quantify and articulate the on-site or off-site economic and ecological impacts of soil loss, notably the failure to sustain crop growth and provide needed ecosystem services.  If it takes a millennium to form 5 cm of soil, why are we so willing to give it away?  While some are able and willing to pay to replace 5 cm of lost quality top soil in their gardens or home lawns, these numbers become staggering at the farm, watershed, national or global scale. Although the development, delivery and use of soils information may not be viewed by some as direct agricultural inputs, they nonetheless help with planning or complementing the work of farmers, conservationists, engineers, bankers, developers, governments, bilateral and multilateral conservation organizations. Nations, universities, private industry, conservation and environmental organizations must join forces to accelerate global soil inventories and promote the use of soils information. We must provide the technical assistance and training necessary for the judicious and productive use of agricultural inputs to fully reap the benefits of increased access to agricultural inputs in the developing world. This will promote cost-effective, sustainable land stewardship geared toward protecting, restoring or enhancing our lands and waters to meet our challenge of feeding a growing world population.