The Biological Management of Tropical Soil Fertility

Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (TSBF) TSBF wasestablished in 1984 under the patronage of the Man and Biosphereprogramme of Unesco and the Decade of the Tropics initiative of theInternational Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS).

The objective ofthe programme is to develop appropriate and innovative approachesfor sustaining tropical soil fertility through the management ofbiological processes and organic resources.

To achieve thisobjective, TSBF aspires to: * make available to farmers and other land managers in the tropicsmethods of soil management which will improve agriculturalproductivity but conserve the soil resource * contribute to increasing the carbon storage equilibrium intropical soils in the face of global changes in land use andclimate * improve understanding of the role of biological resources in soilfertility and the sustainability of tropical land-use systems * improve the research and training capacity of nationalinstitutions in the tropics in the fields of soil biology andmanagement of tropical ecosystems. TSBF is a voluntary participatory international research programmewhose members are committed to the concept that the fertility oftropical soils is controlled by biological processes and can bemanaged by the manipulation of these processes.

Research isconducted at both the ecosystem level and the process level on thebasis of two principles: that the capacity to manage soil fertilitydepends on a mechanistic understanding of the biological processesregulating nutrient flux, organic matter dynamics and soil physicalstructure maintenance, and that successful management forsustainable soil fertility must be implemented at the ecosystemlevel by integrating soil biological processes with those of humandecision making in relation to all components of the ecosystem.