Landmark Issue 19 2021 SINGLE PAGES

26 LANDMARK TEACHING & LEARNING Polluted agricultural soil represents a serious threat to vulnerable populations in rural areas of developing countries. Where land is severely degraded, intervention through remedial action is needed, but we know that such action will ultimately only be effective if it is performed in a sustainable manner. Research on sustainable land management in developing countries has included the development of remediation assessment approaches for the agricultural land setting, with special consideration of soil health. An in-depth life cycle assessment was conducted for the remediation of agricultural land in an arid region of northern China, finding that for remediation to be sustainable, far greater attention to the socio-economic aspects needs to be paid. Another study revealed that socio-economic aspects of remediation can be categorized as (1) community inclusion, (2) economic gain, and (3) health, safety, and welfare. To better understand Chinese farmers' perception of land degradation issues and their corresponding adaptation behaviour, a theoretical framework to explain the interactions among awareness, perception, mitigation, and adaptation was put forward. It was found that the farmers were often aware of land degradation issues, but they lacked in- depth knowledge about the situation and sophisticated adaptation methods. This may be causing environmental displacement and accelerating urbanization, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable remediation of polluted agricultural soils. In summary, successful stewardship of agricultural land will only be achieved by the adoption of sustainable, holistic and integrative land management approaches that incorporate environmental, economic and social values. Dr DavidO’Connor Lecturer in Sustainable LandManagement Sustainable land management in developing countries