Crop Residue Management Practices for Sustaining Soil Health

In the twenty-first century, several innovations have been developed that are focused on realization of sustainability. Zero waste management is a prime example and is practiced with goal of ensuring that the environment is kept clean by ridding it of waste that has in the past, caused deleterious effects. These have manifested especially where man has illicitly dumped or disposed them of as waste materials leading to both direct and indirect effects on ecosystems. In this chapter, priority is given to crop residues management as a form of zero waste management. Emphasis is on sustainable ways and means of disposing off crop waste as opposed to widely applied traditional means that have caused insurmountable havoc on the environment and the constituents of entire ecosystems. The praxis of the chapter is to showcase pitfalls of traditionally used methods of disposing off crop residues while angling for more sustainable means that lead to cradle-to-cradle models of protecting environment. The chapter also provides key interventions that ought to be undertaken if the ‘from soil to soil’ zero waste management technology is to be adopted and its sustainable benefits are to become a common place in all farming zones worldwide.