Soil quality indicators for sustainable agriculture in New Zealand: Proceedings of a workshop held for MAF Policy by the Lincoln Soil Quality Research Centre at Lincoln University, 8-9 February 1996

Abstract

A two day workshop was held at Lincoln University on 8 and 9 February 1996 as part of an operational research programme funded by MAP Policy (l 995/96). The objective of the research programme and the·workshop was to: "identify and define soil quality indicators that could be used to provide sound policy advice on the sustainability of New Zealand agriculture". Thirty national and four overseas experts were invited to participate in the workshop (their names are listed in Section 3). Before attending the workshop all participants received a baseline review of the international literature on soil quality indicators. The working definition of soil quality for agricultural purposes was taken to be simply: "fitness for use". This definition allowed the programme to focus on the development of indicators that may be used for assessing the long-term sustainability of New Zealand's agricultural production systems. These workshop proceedings include copies of five keynote papers given by the invited experts, summaries of the workshop discussions and conclusions from each session. The Working Party have used this information, along with the outcomes of their previous deliberations and the results of the literature review, to identify potentially useful soil quality indicators for New Zealand agriculture. The Working Party recognise concern about both on-site and off-site impacts of agriculture but have restricted the focus in this case to the identification of on-site indicators. For example, a high soil phosphorus concentration is an indicator of soil quality and an indicator of a potential eutrophication problem, nevertheless, in this workshop we have restricted ourselves to the on-site indicator value rather than become involved with defining the forms and amounts of phosphorus in water. The current research programme has identified an initial range of indicators for assessing the sustainability of agriculture in New Zealand. However, since the knowledge base in this area is expanding rapidly the range of indicators may need to change on the basis of new research findings.