Soil Structure and Sustainability

Sustainability of agriculture and natural resources is a popular theme among researchers, financiers and policy makers. This enthusiastic response is partly due to emphasis on technology rather than production, on environmental quality rather than economic profit, and on long-term use of resources rather than their exploitation for short-term gains. Soil structure is a crucial soil property that affects several processes important to soils productive capacity, environmental quality, and agricultural sustainability. Decline in soil structure can set-in-motion the onset of degradative rocesses e.g., compaction, accelerated erosion, water and salt im- Ealance, and soil fertility depletion. Through these processes, detrioration in soil structure has local, regional and global effects on economic, environmental quality and resource sustainability. However, both soil structure and sustainability are often treated as qualitative and subjective concepts. There is a need to develop quantitative measure of these concepts, and establish empirical and conceptual relationships among them. Practical-oriented, and problem- solving research undertaken in diverse benchmark soils and ecological environment can help address the problem of resource management and sustainability.