Healthy soils for sustainable food production and environmental quality

doi:10.15302/J-FASE-2020339

Front. Agr. Sci. Eng.

2020, Vol. 7

Issue (3) : 347-355 https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2020339

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Healthy soils for sustainable food production and environmental quality

Xia LIANG¹(

), Jizheng HE¹, Fusuo ZHANG², Qirong SHEN³, Jinshui WU⁴, Iain M. YOUNG⁵, Anthony G. O'DONNELL⁶, Ligang WANG⁷, Enli WANG⁸, Julian HILL⁹, Deli CHEN¹(

)

¹. School of Agriculture and Food, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
². College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions (Ministry of Education), China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
³. Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory for Organic Solid Waste Utilization, National Engineering Research Center for Organic-Based Fertilizers, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, College of Resources and Environmental Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
⁴. Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Regions, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China
⁵. School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Sydney Institute of Agriculture, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia
⁶. University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
⁷. Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
⁸. CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
⁹. Ternes Scientific, Upwey, Victoria 3158, Australia

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Abstract

Soil is the foundation for sustainable food production and environmental protection. Created by unsustainable land management practices and a range of social, economic and environmental drivers, soil degradation and pollution have been an ongoing threat to international food security and environmental quality. Soil degradation and pollution assessments are, however, often focused on the soil itself with little scope to devise new soil management approaches that match food production systems and/or environmental protection. This study draws lessons from an Australia-China Joint Research Center Program, Healthy Soils for Sustainable Food Production and Environmental Quality: a research platform that has brought together multi-disciplinary approaches from world-renowned universities and research organizations in Australia and China. To this end, a framework is presented for future soil management in a new way that combines excellence in research, industry and policymakers in a partnership that will ensure not only the right focus of the research but also that high-quality outputs will be transferable to industry and end-users.

Keywords Australia China environmental quality food production healthy soils

Corresponding Author(s): Xia LIANG,Deli CHEN

Just Accepted Date: 19 May 2020 Online First Date: 16 June 2020 Issue Date: 28 July 2020

Cite this article:

Xia LIANG,Jizheng HE,Fusuo ZHANG, et al. Healthy soils for sustainable food production and environmental quality[J]. Front. Agr. Sci. Eng. , 2020, 7(3): 347-355.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/10.15302/J-FASE-2020339
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/Y2020/V7/I3/347

Fig.1 Key challenges, objectives and solutions for Australian and Chinese agriculture to increase soil productivity and resilience.

Fig.2 An interactive network based on Australia-China Joint Research Center (ACJRC).

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