SAFE UTILIZATION OF HEAVY METALS-POLLUTED SOILS FOR HEALTHY FOOD PRODUCTION

Abstract

The safe utilization of globally decreasing arable land polluted with heavy metals from increasing industrial activities was reviewed. Global industrialization and commercialization has caused soil to be inundated with various deleterious heavy metals with the attendant health implications to the sustainable development of man in the global environment. This paper considered the sources (both anthropogenic and geogenic) of these heavy metals in soil to understand the dynamism of the soil heavy metal pollution. It considers the temperate and tropical soil types and appropriately described the contamination patterns and the relevant soil-specific ways of alleviating and making the limited available land conducive for agriculture. It highlights the equilibrium dynamics between soil (rock) surface, heavy metals lability, soil solution, and the various strategies to sequester the labile heavy metals component of the soil solution which is the cardinal proportion that is bio-available for uptake by plants. It concluded by proffering smart-farming strategies based on the adaption of soil chemistry and soil microbiology principles for farming with particular reference to heavy metals-contaminated soils which can mitigate the accumulation of these heavy metals at toxic levels in the food chain.