Soil and nutrient management is an integrated system to manage soils, nutrients, water and crops in a sustainable manner to optimise crop production and maintain/improve soil health. These Guidelines provide regionally relevant guidance as a key component of the Strategic Plan of Action for the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) Framework. The ultimate objective of the AIFS Framework is to achieve food security of the region by promoting adaptive and resilient €˜climate - smart’ agricultural systems that underpin a productive and profitable rural sector, while maintaining the functional capacity of the soil resource to provide essential ecosystem functions (commonly described as €˜soil health’), including mitigation of emission of greenhouse gases. Climate - smart agricultural systems are necessarily underpinned by the principles of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), and this dependency is acknowledged in the Guidelines.These Guidelines on Soil and Nutrient Management and accompanying policy recommendations comprise advice prepared for agricultural decision makers. These decision makers may be a group or person that has the authority to make or to influence policy decisions, whether as a Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in ASEAN or in a member state of ASEAN, a member of an ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops (ASWGC), a project steering committee, or an authority mandated to manage soil and nutrients in the region, including international, regional, and national bodies. The policy recommendations serve to inform how science - based evidence and recommendations on climate - resilient soil and nutrient management can assist in making the best decisions on soil and nutrient management that contribute towards sustaining agricultural production and enhancing food security.These Guidelines are intended to provide guidance to the policy, planning and technical support services of government, but the requirements of these different end - user groups are diverse. Consequently a scoping analysis was undertaken of the issues and responses of these end-user groups so the Guidelines could be framed to meet their requirements
