Agricultural sustainability and soil health

Abstract

The soil is a complex natural resource of extreme importance for agricultural production, its sustainable management reflects in its productive potential. Thus, the objective was to identify practices related to agricultural sustainability and the maintenance of soil health, with the purpose of generating information to assist future research, as well as to guide producers as to the practices to be implemented aiming at environmental conservation. According to the survey, conservation agriculture presents itself as a strong option for achieving agricultural sustainability, since soil degradation is related to changes in its physical, chemical and biological attributes, which can occur naturally, or by action of man, derived from inadequate management practices. Among the actions that can promote soil health, the adoption of direct planting or minimal soil tillage stands out; the permanent cover of the soil by the cultivation of plants for their protection and addition of nutrients, combined with rotation and / or consortium of cultures that act in the recycling of nutrients through the decomposition of residues of the cultivated plants, or of the cover plants; and the implantation of terraces, a practice that contributes to the containment and delay of waters that carry nutrients and agrochemicals to water sources. The dissemination of these techniques expands the alternatives in the search for the development of sustainable agriculture.