Question

which of the horizon must be protected in order to conserve soil​

Answer 1

Answer:

described four major opportunities to prevent soil degradation and water pollution caused by farming practices and outlined the technologies and scientific knowledge available to take advantage of those opportunities. These four opportunities are

to conserve and enhance soil quality as the first step to environmental improvement;

to increase the efficiency with which nutrients, pesticides, and irrigation water are used in agricultural production;

to increase the resistance of farming systems to erosion and runoff; and

to make greater use of field and landscape buffer zones.

These opportunities should be the goals that policies to protect soil and water resources seek to achieve. Chapter 3 recommended that soil and water quality programs target resources at problem areas and problem farms and use a farming system, rather than a best-management practice approach, to take advantage of the technical opportunities to prevent soil degradation and water pollution. Chapter 3 also outlined the improved tools and information that producers and program managers will need to implement a farming system approach to managing soil and water resources. Federal, state, and local programs could be made much more effective if these steps were taken.

There is considerable scientific and technical information on how to prevent soil degradation and water pollution, as the chapters in Part Two of this report demonstrate. Although gaps remain to be filled in

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Suggested Citation:"4 Policies to Protect Soil and Water Quality." National Research Council. 1993. Soil and Water Quality: An Agenda for Agriculture. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2132.×

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technology and information, the more important obstacle to improving soil and water quality is the lack of incentives for producers to use the knowledge and technology that already exists.

Ultimately, it is the millions of management decisions producers make each year that determine the effect of farming systems on soil and water quality. The purpose of national policy should be to create the proper incentives that induce producers to change the way they manage their farming systems. There is, however, much less known about the factors that influence producers' choices of cropping, livestock, and enterprise management practices than there is about the technologies and management methods that will protect soil and water quality. Empirical information on the costs of changing farming systems is often lacking or is anecdotal.