Soil Fertility Improvement and Integrated Nutrient Management—a Pathway to Sustainable Agriculture
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 4119
Special Issue Editors
Interests: agronomy; crop science; organic agriculture; fertilization; weeds; tillage; feed crops; alternative crops; industrial crops; sustainable agriculture; medicinal plants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: fertilization; organic agriculture; weed management; tillage; novel crops
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The agricultural sector is under immense demand to ensure food and nutritional security for the world’s growing population, which is expected to reach 9.8 billion people by 2050, according to the United Nations. In this context, agriculture places unpredictably high demands on natural resources, which could hinder environmental protection and degrade agricultural land. This situation has sparked a heated debate about the quest for more efficient fertilizer use and more sustainable use of soil nutrients, highlighting the need for better nutrient management and, more importantly, the integration of methods and practices aimed at achieving proper plant nutrition and productivity goals. The emergence of new agricultural practices, fertilization methods, amendments, and plant nutrition sources, as well as the use of bacteria and fungi to improve the efficiency of nutrient use by crops, are all interesting and sustainable solutions for maintaining soil life, improving fertility, and feeding plants for sufficient and high-quality agricultural production to promote sustainable agriculture. In order to minimize contamination and environmental consequences, it is beneficial to valorize new and/or existing sources of fertilizers and soil improvers, either directly (direct input to the soil) or indirectly (physicochemical transformation). Therefore, to optimize nutrient supply to crops and minimize the environmental risk of nutrient use, it is critical to understand nutrient reactions and processes in soils (soil fertility) and to efficiently manage inorganic and organic nutrient inputs (nutrient management).
For this Special Issue, authors are invited to publish articles focusing on recent scientific progress and innovation in soil fertility and plant nutrition for sustainable agriculture. We welcome novel research, reviews, and opinion papers covering all related topics that enhance our understanding of new agricultural practices that maintain and/or restore soil life and fertility, new methods and technologies for mineral and organic feeding, plant fertilization, new sources of and processes for providing healthy food without negative impact on the soil, and the use of plant cover and/or crop associations.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Ioannis Roussis
Dr. Ioanna Kakabouki
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- soil quality
- soil organic matter
- plant nutrition
- integrated nutrient management
- nutrient use efficiency
- no-tillage agriculture
- biostimulants
- organic fertilizers and biofertilizers plant growth promoting rhizobacteria
- crop residues
- compost
