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Integrating local knowledge into soil science to improve soil fertility
Author(s) -
Cheik Sougueh,
Jouquet Pascal
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
soil use and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.709
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1475-2743
pISSN - 0266-0032
DOI - 10.1111/sum.12656
Subject(s) - agriculture , ecosystem services , sustainability , soil fertility , environmental resource management , food security , context (archaeology) , agroforestry , population , biodiversity , natural resource economics , environmental planning , business , geography , environmental science , ecosystem , ecology , economics , sociology , soil water , soil science , biology , demography , archaeology
Environmental changes are threatening current and future food security. In this context, it is imperative to design agricultural systems that are resilient to increasing frequent climate shocks, losses in biodiversity and soil fertility and to increasing demand from our societies because of population growth and consumption patterns. The emergence of sustainability science reminds us that soil management cannot be successfully approached by the independent actions of individual categories of actors, namely soil researchers or agronomists. Therefore, we advocate for more holistic and transdisciplinary research that takes into account the social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts of agricultural practices. Using examples of agricultural practices that aim to use the activity of termites to improve the services delivered by ecosystems (e.g. the Zai system), rather than considering them pests and trying to eradicate them from lands, we discuss the interest of traditional agricultural practices as sources of inspiration for soil scientists and for the identification of tomorrow's agricultural practices.