| Book Chapter |
 |
|
| Title | Plant nutrition between problems of access and problems of excess: Safety Net filter functions | | Author | Meine van Noordwijk, Georg Cadisch, Didik Suprayogo, Ni'matul Khasanah and Betha Lusiana | | Year | 2002 | | Book Title | Akar pertanian sehat: Konsep dan pemikiran | | Publisher | Brawijaya University | | City of Publication | Malang, Indonesia | | Pages | 11-21 | | Call Number | BC0168-05 |
|
| Abstract: |
| Agro-ecosystem sustainability depends on the ability of farmers to maintain soil
productivity, avoid angry neighbours, keep customers happy and deal with the
regulatory bureaucrats that try to control their activity. As plant nutrition issues are
redefined by society, new applications emerge for a basic understanding of nutrient use
efficiency in soil-plant processes to avoid excess on rich soils as commonly found in the
temperate zone and make the best of it under access-limited conditions common in the
tropics. The main challenge of plant nutrition may be to increase the width of the
domain between the access and excess frontiers, rather than to define a single ‘economic optimum’ point.
Two approaches are discussed to widen this domain: the technical paradigm of precision farming and the ecological analogue approach based on filter functions and comple mentarity of components in mixed plant systems. Current
understanding of plant nutrition, largely focused on monocultural situations, needs to be
augmented by the interactions that occur in more complex systems, including
agroforestry and intercropping as these may form part of the answer in both the excess
and shortage type of situation. Simulations with the WaNuLCAS model to explore the
12 concepts of a 'safety-net' for mobile nutrients by deep rooted plants suggested a limited but real opportunity to intercept nutrients on their way out of the system and thus increase nutrient use-efficiency at the system level. |
|
|
Download file(s): Click icon to download/open file.
|
| |
File Size |
Description |
|
78 KB |
Softcopy |
|
|
|
| Viewed in 2074 times. Downloaded in 738 times. |