Soil composition and properties

¶ … soil, the threats that the soil faces in today's world, the consequences that are likely to result if care is not taken to preserve it and why it is important that action is taken rapidly to conserve soil and how the measures can be implemented. The following is my speech on the status of soil resources, climate change and the fate of human cultures that I deliver on behalf of The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO)

"Soil is a threatened natural resource today in the world and in the past few decades there has been lack of appreciation of why we need to preserve the soils. It is at the risk from degradation by erosion, salinity, contamination, and other results of mismanagement. Besides that over exploitation, overgrazing, inappropriate clearing techniques, and unsuitable land use practices as well as water and wind erosion, and salinization are leading to severe soil nutrient decline. Current research shows that 17% of the land surface has already been strongly degraded and the problem is still spreading. Soil Climate plays a very important role in soil formation and the poor climate change is worrying because it will definitely affect soil formation.

The current human cultures are putting more pressure to an already scaling and unresolved problem. The population explosion is putting more strain to the soils with human activities over using the soil due to prolonged cultivation without giving the soils the opportunity to recuperate. The resultant as we all can see is a decrease in productivity. The problem is not because we do not have the wealth of know- how related to land management, improvement of soil fertility, and protection of soil resources and the repercussions arising but it is because we are not taking actions towards preserving the soils especially for future generations. We need to take action and we need to take it now! We are

We at The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) are calling upon everyone to do all that it takes to preserve this important resource. We are calling on all world organizations and National Governments to ensure that they have adequate measures in place to give a much needed emphasis on soils and their future protections.

There is great need to keep the soil productive, by replenishing its nutrients level on a regular basis. The fact that the world's population is estimated to rise from 5.8 billion to 8 billion by 2025 is a great concern on why soils need to be preserved. The problem of soil is a real challenge and unless this challenge is accepted the use of soil could become a dead end with catastrophic results for many communities."

'Healthy, fertile soil is a mixture of water, air, minerals, and organic mater' (Hudson 1995). In soils organic matter consists of plants and animal material that is in the process of decomposing. One can increase the organic matter of the garden by adding compost or applying mulch. Organic matter is important in improving soil fertility because it helps soil hold important plant nutrients. Organic matter is also crucial because it helps increase soil stability, soil water holding capacity, and supply. For instance, by adding organic matter to sand soil, you will improve the ability of the sand soil to hold water. In clay, it will help loosen the soil to make it more crumby and water will penetrate easily. Besides that organic matter helps in the increase of carbon in the soil which promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria helpful to the plant. Besides that organic matter is helpful in lessening diseases on plants. Organic matter is given so much attention because it is a sure way of helping preserve soil which ahs been abused for so many years.

Human actions have been known to impact on the organic matter due to the disturbance they cause to the soil (Curry and Good, 1992). These human actions that alter the living and nutrient conditions of soil organism include the repetitive tillage or burning of vegetation, soil erosion, overusing the land without replenishing it with humus or plant compost, clearing of forests. What can be done to solve this problem is to replenish the land with humus or plant compost, give the land rest after excessive use, planting of trees to reduce soil erosion etc. The soil organic matter is linked to the atmosphere; hydrosphere, biosphere and climate change in that the carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere of the earth.

The following are the strategy that I feel should be taken to restore the regions of Udaipur in India. In this area it is evident that the unnecessary human activities of over grazing, slash and burn farming, and activities causing soil erosion have affected the soil quality. To improve there are various strategies that need to be adopted. Conservation agriculture is an alternative to slash and burn crop production methods that have been adopted in this place. This will generally involve alternating land between crops production, and native vegetation and forests. 'During crop production without fertilizer additions and good soil management practices, soil quality and crop yields decline overtime, when this happens the field should be left for some time to rest and re-growth of native plants will restore soil quality over time.' (Curry and Good, 1992). Once the soil quality is restored, the native vegetation can be cut and burned to release nutrients back to the soil.

The strategy works well and the natives of Udaipur in India should give the land ample time to replenish and for native vegetation re-growth, typically for some years. It would be ideal if they maintained year round soil cover, with residues from previous crops or a crop cover, minimizing soil disturbance by tilling and rotating crops to improve soil health and quality. It would be also be advisable if they planted more trees to stop soil erosion either by water or wind and given this is a remote grassland region.

Marsha vision was on a landscape lost to the human induced activities of the 20th century. Marsha dreamt of when this will change, that is the landscape and its transformation by human action. Natural landscapes in this case simply mean environments that have not been altered by human action. Cultures landscapes on the other hand have been altered by people through things like building of structures such as campsite.