Nuclear techniques in integrated plant nutrient, water and soil management. Proceedings

The need to produce sufficient food of acceptable quality in the context of an ever-expanding human population has been recognized as a priority by several international conventions and agreements. Intensification, rather than expansion of agriculture into new areas, will be required if the goal of food security is to become a reality. Problems related to the sustainable production of food, fuel and fibre, both in low input and in high input agricultural systems, are now widely recognized. The overexploitation of the natural resource base has led to serious declines in soil fertility through loss of organic matter, nutrient mining, and soil erosion. The overuse of external inputs of water and manufactured fertilizers has resulted in salinization and pollution of ground and surface waters. Nuclear science has a crucial role to play in supporting research and development of sustainable farming systems. An FAO/IAEA International Symposium on Nuclear Techniques in Integrated Plant Nutrient, Water and Soil Management, held in Vienna from 16 to 20 October 2000, was attended by 117 participants representing forty-three countries and five organizations. The purpose was to provide an international forum for a comprehensive review of the state of the art and recent advances made in this specific field, as well as a basis for delineating further research and development needs. The participation of soil, crop and environmental scientists, as well as isotope specialists, ensured an exchange of information and views on recent advances in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to addressing problems in sustainable land management. The symposium was organized around seven themes, each represented by a technical session introduced by a keynote speaker: Evaluation and management of natural and manufactured nutrient sources; Soil organic matter dynamics and nutrient cycling; Soil water management and conservation; Plant tolerance to environmental stress; Environmental and pollution studies; Assessment of soil erosion and sedimentation; Recent advances in isotope analytical methodologies and related instrumentation. The symposium not only demonstrated the dynamic and evolving role of isotopes in monitoring and improving the nutrient and water status of soils, and thereby the sustainability of natural resource use for crop production, but served to increase awareness among the international scientific and development communities of recent advances in methodologies and approaches. In particular, attention was drawn to the substantial opportunities now available for improving the sensitivity and precision of stable and radioactive isotope determination through better instrumentation, and to new multiple labelling approaches to follow the cycling of two or more nutrients simultaneously and which illustrated clearly the interdependence between nutrient and carbon fluxes