The red soils of China are highly weathered, inherently infertile and very susceptible to erosion. However, they represent China's last available soil resource that could be brought into agricultural production, a fact that assumes great importance in view of China's huge and still-increasing population. These soils are typical of similar red soils that occur throughout tropical and sub-tropical South America, Africa and south east Asia, so that if the red soils of China could be successfully utilized then this would have wider implications for agriculture in other countries. Previous attempts to cultivate Chinese red soils have met with little success and it has become apparent that they cannot sustain arable cropping systems without the most careful management.
This book describes recent research outlining the physical, chemical and mineralogical nature of the soils, the various constraints that combine to inhibit their practical use, and the traditional and novel approaches that may be used to overcome these constraints. Building upon previous work and using examples from other countries, the book illustrates these approaches, shows appropriate land uses for the red soils of China and how the fertility of the soils evolves with time under these land uses. Whether these technical and scientific advances will be taken up by the Chinese farmer will depend to a large extent on the prevailing socio-economic conditions.

Agriculture is a crucial component of the economies of many of the countries in transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy and the sector is by no means immune to the environmental and socioeconomic problems confronting the countries as a whole. The concept of sustainable development provides a convenient framework for the formulation of government environmental policy for such countries, especially those of them that aspire to join the EU and would thus be expected to meet EU environmental standards. For agriculture, this inevitably involves appropriate strategies for balancing crop and animal production while protecting the quality of the national soil and water resources. There is thus an urgent need to compile, exchange and evaluate current information on the quality of soils in these countries, and to assess the potential impact of new management practices on the soil and on the wider environment.