World’s Soil Resources

Canterbury region. There has been a six-fold increase in N fertilizer use over the past 20 years (compared to
a two to three fold increase in Australia) along with substantial increases in use of most other agricultural
inputs.
Soil-based primary production is fundamental to the New Zealand economy and agricultural, horticultural
and forest products together account for 60–65 percent of the country’s total export income. Understanding
the pressures and changes occurring in the soils of New Zealand, especially under pasture systems, has been
a major task for New Zealand soil scientists. The establishment of a coordinated soil monitoring capability
(Sparling and Schipper, 2002) has been important.
Taylor et al. (2010) provide an example of the insights gained from the monitoring program for the Waikato
region which covers much of New Zealand’s central North Island. This monitoring program is linked to systems
for setting regional targets for various aspects of the soil resource. About 58 percent of the region is in pastures,
18 percent is in plantation forestry and