Eminent specialists with worldwide experience have collaborated in producing 10 diverse but inter-related chapters, with many references. In considering soil quality, productivity and derived environmental services, some writers are constrained by assuming that land degradation is caused by soil erosion. But what happens if we posit that erosion is a consequence of soil degradation, not its primary cause? Some incline towards soils as basically geomorphic entities forming at the rate of rock-weathering; others incline towards soils as biological entities being formed and re-formed from the top downwards through biotic transformations of organic matter. Some imply hope that increased efforts in soil and water conservation can prevent further land degradation. But it becomes apparent that many current problems with economically maintaining productivity require improvements in the biological dynamics of soil as a rooting medium.

The book shows flashes of an altered paradigm, in which more resilient plant production, more reliable river flows, net increase of soil carbon, improved productive potentials, self-recuperation of soil structure, greater efficiency in use of water, plant nutrients and energy, can be integrated. This is shown by matured examples of conservation agriculture. The four-way interactions between the biological, physical, chemical and hydrological components of soil productivity underpin both ‘sustainability’ and ‘top-down soil-formation’ and indicate the reliance of macro-scale improvements in productivity and livelihoods on micro-scale biotic activities.

It is unfortunate that the price of this interesting book will likely preclude many outside the academic world whose thinking and outlook would be stimulated as much by its implications as by its writings.