Assessment of Soil Suitability for Improvement of Soil Factors and Agricultural Management

Sameh Kotb Abd-Elmabod, Noura Bakr, Miriam Muñoz-Rojas, Paulo Pereira, Zhenhua Zhang, Artemi Cerdà, Antonio Jordán, Hani Mansour (), Diego De la Rosa and Laurence Jones
Additional contact information
Sameh Kotb Abd-Elmabod: Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Noura Bakr: Soil and Water Use Department, Agricultural and Biological Research Division, National Research Centre, Cairo 12622, Egypt
Miriam Muñoz-Rojas: Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Paulo Pereira: Environmental Management Centre, Mykolas Romeris University, Ateities, Vilnius LT-08303, Lithuania
Zhenhua Zhang: Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Artemi Cerdà: Soil Erosion and Degradation Research Group, Department of Geography, Valencia University, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Antonio Jordán: MED_Soil Research Group, Department of Crystallography, Mineralogy and Agricultural Chemistry, Seville University, 41012 Seville, Spain
Diego De la Rosa: Earth Sciences Section, Royal Academy of Sciences, 41012 Seville, Spain
Laurence Jones: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH-Bangor), Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Road, Bangor LL57 2UW, UK

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: The dramatic growth of the world’s population is increasing the pressure on natural resources, particularly on soil systems. At the same time, inappropriate agricultural practices are causing widespread soil degradation. Improved management of soil resources and identification of the potential agricultural capability of soils is therefore needed to prevent further land degradation, particularly in dryland areas such as Egypt. Here, we present a case study in the El-Fayoum depression (Northern Egypt) to model and map soil suitability for 12 typical Mediterranean crops. Two management scenarios were analyzed: the current situation (CS) and an optimal scenario (OS) of soil variables. The Almagra model was applied to estimate soil suitability under CS and OS. Management options based on the CS assessment were proposed to reduce some limiting factors: a fixed value of 2 dSm ?1 for soil salinity and 5% for sodium saturation; these defined the OS. Under optimal management, the OS scenario showed potential, where a notable increase of the area covered by a high suitability class (around 80%) for annual and semi-annual crops was observed. There was also a marked increase (about 70% for CS and 50% for OS) for perennial crops shifting from the marginal to moderate soil suitability class. The results reveal the importance of proper management to massively alter soil suitability into better states in order to achieve sustainable land use in this fertile agro-ecosystem.

Keywords: sustainable agriculture; MicroLEIS DSS; land-use planning; soil reclamation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1588/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1588/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1588-:d:214261

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().