Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Soil Fertility

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture faces to a huge challenge. Food production must be increased substantially in the next decades whereas adverse environmental impacts associated with agriculture need to be mitigated in order to develop more sustainable production systems. This goal is particularly difficult to achieve in (tropical) developing countries, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where food production capacity is severely limited due to soil fertility depletion related to multiple nutrient deficiencies.

The intensification of food production requires soil and land to be managed sustainably, including avoidance of negative nutrient balances and soil erosion, the build-up of soil carbon, and the retention of soil biological diversity thresholds to maintain essential functions managed by soil biota.

Thus, this Special Issue welcomes papers covering the many diverse areas implicated in improving soil fertility for a sustainably intensified agriculture. Papers focusing on management drivers allowing to more sustainable agriculture production systems are expected. Papers should explicitly cover farm- or field-level productivity and could have a specific focus on the following areas (themes not exhaustive):

• the integrated management of soil fertility based on enhancing productivity through an appropriate management of inputs (fertilizers, mineral and organic soil amendments) aiming at maximizing nutrient use efficiency;
• the production and management of biomass (including crop and woody residues, farmyard manure and compost, fertilizing organic matter of residual origin, biochars, etc.) to improve crop productivity and ensure the durability of different ecosystem services (soil carbon sequestration, functions managed by soil biota, erosion, etc.);
• the role of below-ground functional biodiversity of soil macro- and microorganisms to provide multiple functions and services to agrosystem;
• the role of above-ground biodiversity, through the use of different strategies of crop diversification, such as, agroforestry, intercropping of different crops, associated plant species (cover crops, companion crops, etc.) used for their agronomic or environmental purposes;
• the effects of integrated livestock-agriculture production systems on nutrient cycling are also welcomed.

Dr. Thierry Becquer
Guest Editor

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