Article: Participatory soil quality assessment: the case of smallholder farmers in Ethiopian highlands.

Introduction

Continued degradation of agricultural soils is leading to decreased productivity and increased environmental risks. As a result there is urgent need for sustaining the productivity of the soil resource base and improving soil quality. Soil quality (SQ) can be defined as soil's ability to perform the functions necessary to meet the goals of the land manager. It can be inherent (Fig. 1), which reflects differences due to soil-forming factors and processes, or dynamic (Fig. 2), reflecting spatial or temporal changes depending on the management history of the soil resource (Karlen et al. 1997).

[FIGURES 1-2 OMITTED]

The success of ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!