Farming the Black Earth

¿Boris Boincean knows the black earth. As a son of the steppe, he has spent his professional life cheek by jowl with chernozem. He holds the degree of Dr Hab. agricultural sciences from Moscow Timireazev Akademy (University) and, for many years, has directed the long-term field experiments at the Selectia Research Institute for Field Crops on the Balti Steppe, in Moldova - the very soil described by Dokuchaev in 1887 as 'first class'. He also holds the Chair of Natural Resources and Agro-ecology at Alecu Russo Balti State University.Rattan Lal, originally from Haryana, cut his teeth as a soil physicist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture at Ibadan, Nigeria, before taking the position of Professor of Soil Science, later Distinguished Professor, at Ohio State University in the heart of America's black earth belt. Surely the world's most prolific and respected soil scientist, he is currently Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State University and President of the International Union of Soil Sciences.David Dent is an independent scientist. He has worked in soil survey, land evaluation and land use planning on every continent - in the public service as a researcher and university teacher, and as a consultant to governments, international organisations and the private sector. Most recently, he was Director of ISRIC World Soil Information in Wageningen, The Netherlands, and he now works from his farmhouse in Norfolk.