Contents: Preface. Recommendations. Inaugural address/Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Plenary address/M.S. Swaminathan. International conference on soil, water and environmental quality--issues and strategies: an introduction and report/R.K. Rattan. Plenary/evening lectures: 1. Participatory watershed management for improved soil and water quality/J.S. Samra. 2. Impact of land degradation and improved land management on water productivity/F. Rijsberman, D. Bossio and A.D. Noble. 3. Soil and its quality vis-a-vis sustainability and society: some random thoughts/N.N. Goswami. 4. Managing scarce water resources in agriculture in dry areas/Adel El-Beltagy, Mohan Saxena and Theib Oweis. I. Quantitative indices and their appraisal for soil and water quality: 1. Soil quality: indices and appraisal/B.J. Wienhold, S.S. Andrews and D.L. Karlen. 2. Soil quality in sustainable agriculture: the soil biota as an invaluable resource/Lijbert Brussard, Abdoulaye Mando, Elisee Ouedraogo and Mirjam Pulleman. 3. Soil quality indices--an Indian perspective/P.R. Gajri, D.L.N. Rao and M.V. Singh. 4. Wastewater use for sustainable agriculture--Indian perspective/P.S. Minhas. 5. Bioresource recovery through wastewater management in sugarcane molasses based distillery--a case study/Tapas Nandy, Sunita Shastry and S.N. Kaul. 6. Use of artificial neural networks in soil science/Anil Kumar Singh. 7. Soil quality index to optimize soil management for rice-wheat system/R.P. Tripathi and Peeyush Sharma. II. Agricultural management practices vis-a-vis soil and water quality: 1. A global assessment of land quality in the anthropocene/Hari Eswaran, Paul Reich and Taweesak Vearasilp. 2. Sustainable use of soil: matching food security with environmental protection/Winfried E.H. Blum. 3. Wastewater use in irrigated agriculture: management challenges in developing countries/C.A. Scott, N.I. Faruqui and L. Raschid-Sally. 4. Sustenance of soil, water and environmental quality through agroforestry: India's 25 years experiences and a future perspective/S.K. Dhyani, V.N. Sharda and J.S. Samra. 5. Organic vs conventional farming on soil and water quality in the context of WTO/Vijay Sardana. 6. Integrated farming systems for sustainable soil and water quality/Gurbachan Singh. 7. Soil and water quality issues vis-a-vis agricultural management practices in Deccan plateau/K.L. Sahrawat, V. Murugappan and A. Padma Raju. 8. Soil and water quality issues vis-a-vis agricultural management practices in central and Western India/A. Subba Rao, N.K. Kalyanasundaram, P.R. Bharambe and A.K. Biswas. 9. Soil and water quality vis-a-vis agricultural management practices in Eastern India/A.K. Sarkar, D.K. Kundu, D.K. Das and T.C. Baruah. 10. Impact of rice-wheat cropping system on soil and water quality/Bijay-Singh, Pradeep K. Sharma and Raj K. Gupta. 11. Arsenic and selenium dynamics in water-soil-plant system: a threat to environmental quality/S.K. Sanyal and K.S. Dhillon. 12. Remediation of metal contaminated soil/R. Krishnasamy and T. Chitdeshwari. 13. Vegetative bioremediation of sodic and saline-sodic soils/M. Qadir and B.R. Sharma. III. Soils and climate change: 1. Carbon sequestration and climate change with specific reference to India/R. Lal. 2. A system for estimating soil organic carbon stocks and changes at the regional scale - a case study from the Indo-Gangetic plains, India/E. Milne, T. Bhattacharyya, D.K. Pal, K. Paustian, M. Easter and S. Williams. 3. Emission of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from agriculture/H.U. Neue. 4. Impact of agricultural activities on emission of greenhouse gases--Indian perspective/Milkha S. Aulakh and Tapan K. Adhya. 5. Heavy metal content of sediments/soil in an estuary used by migratory birds in the island of Mauritius/B. Lalljee and S. Facknath. IV. Resource quality and society: 1. Soil and water quality--interrelationships and international context/Stephen Nortcliff. 2. Quality of soils and groundwater in urban areas/Wolfgang Burghardt. 3. Resource quality and changing diets in Asia: implications for research and policy/P. Pingali and R. Stringer. 4. Nutrient management, food security and entitlements--farmers' perceptions on different soil management strategies in Northern Tigray, Ethiopia/Ingrid Hartman. 5. Remote sensing in inventory and assessment of natural resources quality/S.K. Saha. 6. Recycling and utilization of urban and rural wastes for the welfare of the society/P.D. Sharma, Mohan Singh and Masood Ali. V. Strategies for sustenance of soil, water and environmental quality: 1. Crop diversification and soil health/S. Nagarajan and Shiva Dhar. 2. Range and cropland management for increased carbon sequestration in Central Asia/M.K. Suleimenov and K.A. Akshalov. 3. Sustainability of irrigated agriculture and river valley projects in India/R.S. Geol and V.B. Patel. 4. Strategies for improving soil and water quality in arid and rainfed agro-ecosystems of India/Pratap Narain, S.P. Wani and S.K. Singh. 5. Environmental impact of agrochemicals in India and strategies to mitigate/Prem Dureja and Balraj S. Parmar.

"Current demographic pressure confounded by consumerism, industrialization, urbanization, employment generation and poverty alleviation programmes is impacting the basic natural resources, viz. soil, water and biodiversity, as never before in the human history. For addressing these issues from the perspective of a productive and sustainable agriculture, the Indian Society of Soil Science organized this Conference under the aegis of the International Union of Soil Sciences. The conference was held from 28 January to 1 February 2005 at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Attended by more than 450 delegates from 17 countries, the activities of the conference were split into three components viz. (i) Structured presentations including plenary and evening lectures and symposia, (ii) Poster presentation spread over three days in four sessions, and (iii) Exhibition on Natural Resources Management in India.

Voluntary papers presented as posters, depicted researches carried out in different parts of the world, offered ample opportunity for interaction among the participants. The exhibition organized on natural resource management was an important activity on the state of the natural resources in India.

Deliberations at the conference reiterated unequivocally that the soil, water and biodiversity are our national wealth and heritage, and these have been over-exploited and are in an advanced stage of degradation. The shrinking capacity of soils to absorb any more abuse must be impressed on the public mind through appropriate changes in educational curriculum, mass media, etc. This conference unanimously appealed to the individual countries to act on the "World Soil Charter of FAO" and press for "UN Soils Convention" to accord the same high priority to soil preservation as is being currently given to climate change, biodiversity, etc."