Panchagavya as Soil Conditioner: Ancient Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Agriculture

Indigenous African soil enrichment as a climatesmart sustainable agriculture alternative

© The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.org D some improvement in environmental outcomes, conventional agriculture continues to contribute to biodiversity loss, climate change, and the degradation of terrestrial and freshwater systems (Foley et al. 2011 ). A major global challenge is to develop sustainable, “climatesmart” agricultural systems that feed growing populations and...

Traditional Knowledge and Sustainable Development

Sustainable Agriculture, Soil Health, and Soil Organic Matter

The latter two principles protect the soil resource on which all food and fibre production ultimately depends. However, agricultural production systems differ from ‘natural’ or undeveloped systems in that they can be considered to be ‘leaky’ with respect to nutrients. This is inevitable, due to nutrient removal in harvested product, but inappropriate fertiliser management can exacerbate the ‘le...

Beneficial Soil Microorganisms: A Key for Sustainable Agriculture

Microorganisms play a major role in the plant-soil relationship, particularly in the rhizosphere, i.e. the interface between root and soil. Rhizosphere is strongly influenced by the root, through its productions (rhizodeposition) and its respiration, as well as uptake of ions and minerals. In this environment, plant beneficial microorganisms are of peculiar importance: they stimulate plant grow...

Sustainable Traditional Medicine: Taking the Inspirations from Ancient Veterinary Science

Rapid reduction in natural resources as a consequence to the expanded urbanization, global warming and reduced natural habitat posed a considerable threat to the sustainability of traditional medicine. Being completely dependent upon natural resources like herbs, minerals and animal products, traditional medicine would possibly rank first in order of extinction of heritage if an alternative way...