Legacy Phosphorus In Agriculture Role Of Past Management And Perspectives For The Future

Currently, agriculture is at a crossroads similar to that experienced at the beginning of the last century. The growing need to supply food to global markets and the incipient climate is expected to jeopardize the current agricultural systems. This situation requires a rethinking of agricultural production systems, and it is clearly necessary to incorporate new tools and agronomic practices that improve efficiency and sustainability. A key factor can be identified in using resources or the competition of crops to resist biotic and abiotic stresses. Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) are of outstanding utility due to the multiple mechanisms with which they influence plant development. It is fundamental, at these crossroads, to delve deeper into the mechanisms by which PGPB can improve the development of plants in the soil at the phenotypic level. Biochemical methods, incorporating genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic analyses, can help us understand these interactions. In addition, omics techniques will make it possible to create a complete and complex vision using big data technologies, spurring new strategies to achieve an agriculture with a greater degree of integration of the environment, and greater efficiency of production with reduced risk to human.

This book describes a pathway for sustainable phosphorus management via the Global Transdisciplinary Processes for Sustainable Phosphorus Management project (Global TraPs). Global TraPs is a multi-stakeholder forum in which scientists from a variety of disciplines join with key actors in practice to jointly identify critical questions and to articulate what new knowledge, technologies and policy processes are needed to ensure that future phosphorus use is sustainable, improves food security and environmental quality and provides benefits for the poor. The book offers insight into economic scarcity and identifies options to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impacts of anthropogenic phosphorus flows at all stages of the supply and use chain.

World phosphate reserves and resources; The phosphate industry of the United States; Evaluation of phosphatic raw materials; Phosphate raw materials and fertilizers: part I - a look ahead; Phosphate raw materials and fertilizers: part II - a case history of marginal raw materials; Sulfur requirements of the phosphate fertilizer industry; Phosphoric acid technology; Phosphate fertilizers and process technology; World phosphate fertilizer supply-demand outlook; Energy requirements for the production of phosphate fertilizers; Energy of phosphate fertilizer applications and food energy returns; Reactions of phosphate fertilizers in soils; Agronomic effectiveness of phosphate fertilizers; Evaluation and utilization of residual phosphorus in soils; Use and limitations of physical-chemical criteria for assessing the status of phosphorus in soils; Assessing organic phosphorus in soils; Conventional soil and tissue tests for assessing the phosphorus status of soils; Management considerations for acid; Use of waste materials as sources of phosphorus; Agricultural phosphorus in the environment; Phosphate nutrition of plants - a general treatise; Soil-plant interactions in the phosphorus nutrition of plants; Role of rhizosphere microorganisms in phosphorus uptake by plants; Interactions of phosphorus with other elements in soils and in plants; Phosphate nutrition of corn, sorghum, soybeans, and small grains; Phosphorus nutrition of cotton, peanuts, rice, sugarcane, and tobacco; Phosphorus nutrition of vegetable crops and sugar beets; Phosphorus nutrition and fertilization of forest trees; Phosphorus nutrition of forages; Relationship between phosphorus nutrition of plants and the phosphorus nutrition of animals and man.

The world population is projected to reach nine billion by 2050, and in the coming years, global food demand is expected to increase by 50% or more. Higher crop productivity gains in the future will have to be achieved in developing countries through better natural resources management and crop improvement. After nitrogen, phosphorus (P) has more widespread influence on both natural and agricultural ecosystems than any other essential plant element. It has been estimated that 5.7 billion hectares of land worldwide contain insufficient amounts of available P for sustainable crop production, and P deficiency in crop plants is a widespread problem in various parts of the world. However, it has been estimated that worldwide minable P could last less than 40 years. For sustaining future food supplies, it is vital to enhance plant P use efficiency. To bring the latest knowledge and research advances in efficient management of P for economically viable and environmentally beneficial crop production in sustainable agriculture, Phosphorus Management in Crop Production contains chapters covering functions and diagnostic techniques for P requirements in crop plants, P use efficiency and interactions with other nutrients in crop plants, management of P for optimal crop production and environmental quality, and basic principles and methodology regarding P nutrition in crop plants. The majority of research data included are derived from many years of field, greenhouse, and lab work, hence the information is practical in nature and will have a significant impact on efficient management of P-fertilizers to enhance P use efficiency, improve crop production, promote sustainable agriculture, and reduce P losses through eluviations, leaching, and erosion to minimize environmental degradation. A comprehensive book that combines practical and applied information, Phosphorus Management in Crop Production is an excellent reference for students, professors, agricultural research scientists, food scientists, agricultural extension specialists, private consultants, fertilizer companies, and government agencies that deal with agricultural and environmental issues.

Phosphorus is essential to the production of our food, and it also triggers algal blooms in lakes, rivers, and oceans when it slips through our hands. An understanding of this essential resource and how we have used and misused it over the years is crucial to the sustainability of our well-being on our planet. In this book, world authorities on phosphorus sustainability Jim Elser and Phil Haygarth explain this element's involvement in biology, human health and nutrition, food production, ecosystem function, and environmental sustainability. Phosphorus chronicles the sustainability challenges phosphorus both poses and solves in various contexts. The book begins with its discovery over 350 years ago, moving to its basic chemistry and the essential role it plays in all living things on Earth. Chapters go on to explain the rise in the usage of phosphorus in agriculture and how the increase in the mining of rock phosphate in the mid-20th century was essential for the Green Revolution. However, phosphorus emissions from human wastes and detergents triggered widespread algal blooms in the 1960s and 1970s. While such emissions have been brought under better control with wastewater treatment, diffuse emissions from farming continue to cause water quality degradation. The authors explain how these diffuse phosphorus emissions may worsen with climate change. In ten concise chapters, Elser and Haygarth offer engaging explanations of our historical use and abuse of phosphorus, including the phosphorus sustainability movement and new efforts to sustain food benefits of limited rock reserves following the phosphate rock price shock in 2007-2008. Highlighting new approaches for phosphorus, the two "Systems Innovators" turn toward the emerging set of sustainable phosphorus solutions necessary to achieve a sustainable "phosphoheaven" and avoid "phosphogeddon." The book provides an insider's take on this essential resource and why all of us need to wrestle with the wicked problems this element will cause, illuminate, or eliminate in years to come.