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\"Testing of unsaturated soils is particularly difficult and time-consuming, and guidance for engineers is minimal. This is the first book to systematically collate the various laboratory tests. It covers general background and theory along with test procedures and the interpretation of test results. Test procedures are broken down into simple stages, and the pitfalls are described. Test data and calculation methods are provided along with several numerical examples. It serves for students and researchers who are new to the field as well as for established professionals\"-- Provided by publisher.

\"Here is the definitive guide to unsaturated soil by the world's expert in the area of unsaturated soil mechanics. This volume features the latest information and replaces the leading text in the field, also written by this author team. The text offers state-of-the-art information to deal with the practical engineering problems resulting from unsaturated soil. Greater emphasis has been placed on the using the soil-water characteristic curve in solving practical engineering problems, as well as the quantification of thermal and moisture boundary conditions based on weather data\"--

Triaxial Testing of Soils explains how to carry out triaxial tests to demonstrate the effects of soil behaviour on engineering designs. An authoritative and comprehensive manual, it reflects current best practice and instrumentation.References are made throughout to easily accessible articles in the literature and the book?s focus is on how to obtain high quality experimental results.

Along with the increasing prominence of environmental risks such as soil surface source pollution and declining quality grade of arable land, the issues of how to address irrational fertilizer application and enhance the safety of agricultural products have attracted widespread attention. In this context, clarifying the main factors affecting farmers’ use of soil testing and formulated fertilization technology (STFFT) can further improve the technology adoption rate and fertilizer utilization efficiency, promote standardized agricultural production and maintain the health and stability of soil ecology in black soil areas. This is of great significance to the construction of green agriculture, national dietary health and national food security. This study builds an “external environmental stimuli-perceived characteristics-adoption behavior” theoretical framework to investigate the decision-making and the dynamic influence mechanisms of farmers’ adoption behavior of STFFT. Based on farmer survey data, the logistic-ISM model has been applied. The main findings are as follows. First, five types of influencing factors, namely individual characteristics, family characteristics, business characteristics, cognitive characteristics and external environmental characteristics, had significant “push” effects on farmers’ STFFT adoption behavior. Among them, planting scale and technical training are the key factors influencing farmers’ adoption of scientific fertilizer application technology. Second, both farmers’ perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness play a significant role in farmers’ decision-making process, and the easier farmers perceive STFFT to be to master and the greater the benefits it brings, the more pronounced the tendency to adopt the technology, all other influencing conditions being equal. Third, the main influencing factors of farmers’ STFFT adoption behavior are intrinsically related and divided into four categories based on the magnitude of influence: deep-rooted, medium indirect, shallow indirect and superficial direct. In order to reduce further degradation of black soil caused by farmers’ irrational production habits and to improve resource utilization efficiency, this study recommends the government to further regulate the land transfer market, strengthen the propagation of soil-conservation-type technologies in black soil areas, expand the breadth of agricultural technology training and enhance farmers’ understanding and trust in STFFT. Thus, the maintenance of soil ecosystem in black soil areas, effective guarantee of food security and sustainable development of agriculture can be achieved.

Although it has been widely recognized that land fragmentation has increased chemical fertilizer application, little is known about the role of technology adoption in mitigating these adverse effects. To empirically examine the relationship between land fragmentation, technology adoption and chemical fertilizer application, we developed a mediation model. We applied our analysis to a survey data set encompassing 1388 farm-level samples collected in 14 Chinese provinces in 2019. Our study demonstrated that land fragmentation can not only directly increase chemical fertilizer application but also indirectly increase it by hindering the adoption of agricultural mechanization technologies (AMT’s) and soil testing fertilization technologies (STFT’s). Both are recognized as potent drivers of fertilizer use reductions. Moreover, the adoption of information and communications technologies (ICT’s) can help mitigate the negative effects of land fragmentation on technology adoption, thus reducing chemical fertilizer application intensity (CFAI). However, the direct effects of land fragmentation on CAFI was unaffected by ICT’s. Our findings suggest that ICT’s have revolutionized farmer recognition, promotion and adoption of agricultural technologies by increasing awareness and diffusion of agricultural technology information.

The extension of organic fertilizers helps improve soil quality and reduces non-point source pollution caused by excessive use of fertilizers, however, whether the application of organic fertilizers (OFA) contributes to an increase in farmers' income is a matter of debate. This paper discussed how the application of soil-testing formulas and outsourcing services that some or all links of agricultural production to professional organizations moderate the income-increasing effect of OFA, and Multinomial Endogenous Switching Regression Model (MESR) is selected to do the empirical test. The results indicate that OFA with soil-testing formula and OFA with outsourcing service can effectively increase farmers' income, in specific, OFA with soil-testing formula increases the net monetary income of wheat growing on per hectare (ha) of land by 2150 Renminbi (RMB), and OFA with outsourcing service increases the net monetary income of wheat growing on per ha of land by 3950 RMB, however, OFA has no effectiveness on increasing farmers' income if neither soil-testing formulas nor outsourcing services is available. The influence mechanism of OFA to improve farmers' income is to increase crop yield, but OFA has no effectiveness on increasing the price of products. A systematic extension services including the extension of organic fertilizers, soil testing formulas and outsourcing services should be formed in the future.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between the adoption of soil nutrient management practices and climate resilience. We hypothesized that adopting soil testing and formulated fertilization would positively impact farmers’ ability to absorb and recover from climate-related shocks and stresses. We employed three economic indicators as proxies for climate resilience: net agricultural income, rice yield, and rice productivity. Data came from a random sample of 753 rice farmers in Hubei, China. We undertook a two-step analysis approach. First, we estimated a Probit model to predict the discrete choice variable of adopting soil testing and formulated fertilization and then used ordinary least squares regression models to examine the effect of soil nutrient management and other control variables on climate resilience indicators. Second, we performed endogenous switching regression to address the potential selection bias in the choice of adopting soil nutrient practices. Our results showed that younger, those with higher levels of education and large-scale farmers were more likely to adopt the soil testing and formulated fertilization. Our study provided evidence that the adoption of soil testing and formulated fertilization significantly enhanced the climate resilience of rice producers in central China. The adoption of soil nutrient management technologies increased net agricultural income, rice yield, and productivity, with estimated causal effects of 5.63% (p < 0.01), 4.44% (p < 0.01), and 2.84% (p < 0.05), respectively. Our findings provide further insight into the role and importance of soil nutrient management in promoting climate resilience in China.

In response to global climate change, the Chinese Government has taken numerous measures to promote low-carbon management practices, but the overall adoption rate has been lower than expected. Empirical studies on the path dependence of farming experience, that is, long-standing planting concepts that will hinder farmers from adopting new technologies, have not been reported. Hence, to fill the research gaps, this paper uses survey data from 805 rice farmers in Zhejiang, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces, China, to examine the impact of farming experience on the adoption of soil testing and fertilizer recommendations. The results show that farming experience significantly negatively affects the adoption of low-carbon practices, especially among farmers with low resource endowment. However, farmers, who make decisions based jointly on farming experience and social networks, are more likely to adopt low-carbon practices. This means that as long as farming experience is used reasonably, for example, by broadening the social network of farmers and urging them to form a decision-making method that comprehensively utilizes farming experience and social networks, it can also demonstrate value. Our findings contribute meaningfully to the development of efforts to promote the adoption of low-carbon management practices in China.

Protecting and improving the quality of cultivated land is important to agricultural modernization. Based on data from a survey of 706 rice-growing households in Hunan, Jiangxi and Jiangsu, this paper uses the Probit model, CMP method and Biprobit model to systematically analyze the impact of agricultural socialized services on farmers’ cultivated land quality protection behaviors. This study finds that agricultural socialized services have a significantly positive impact on the adoption of soil testing formulas and straw returning technology among farmers, which can improve both the probability and the degree of cultivated land quality protection. The heterogeneity test results suggest that agricultural socialized services provide a higher incentive for the older generation of farmers to adopt arable land quality protection. In addition, we found that agricultural socialized services are more conducive to the protection of contracted land than transferred land. Therefore, we recommend that policies on agricultural socialized services be further implemented, the supply of agricultural socialized services be optimized, and the role of service organizations in publicizing and promoting cultivated land protection techniques be brought into play. We also posit that the simultaneous encouragement of farmers in using agricultural socialized services would protect the quality of cultivated land. During this process, additional attention should be paid to the response differentiation of peasants with different characteristics.

Establishment of a rapid tool for monitoring soil carbon sequestration in farmer fields. Novel linkage of multiconstituent soil analyses with a carbon mineralization model. Extensive calibration and validation of the results of the near-infrared spectroscopy NIRS analyses. Soil bulk density derived from NIRS analyses and pedotransfer functions. In 2015, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were approved, including SDG13, which addresses actions to increase carbon capture (CO2-C storage) for climate change mitigation. However, no analytical procedures have been defined for quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. This paper presents a rapid tool for guiding farmers and for monitoring SOC sequestration in farmer fields. The tool consists of multiconstituent soil analyses through near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and an SOC mineralization model. The tool provides forecasts of SOC sequestration over time. Soil analyses by NIRS have been calibrated and validated for farmer fields in European countries, China, New Zealand, and Vietnam. Results indicate a high accuracy of determination for SOC (R2≥ 0.93), and for inorganic C, soil texture, and soil bulk density. Permanganate oxidizable soil C is used as proxy for active SOC, to detect early management-induced changes in SOC contents, and is also quantified by NIRS (R2 = 0.92). A pedotransfer function is used to convert the results of the soil analyses to SOC sequestration in kg·ha−1 C as well as CO2. In conclusion, the tool allows fast, quantitative, and action-driven monitoring of SOC sequestration in farmer fields, and thereby is an essential tool for monitoring progress of SDG13.