ABSTRACT
The BMP concept was introduced with the passage of The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, Public Law 92-500, a law that speciƒed practices designed to control nonpoint water pollution by
• Reducing the amount of runoff • Reducing the amount of pollution carried by the runoff • Prohibiting soil-disturbing activities in fragile or severely erosion-prone areas
From its environmental beginning, the concept of BMPs has spread to other aspects of the management of soils and crops, as outlined in the Potash & Phosphate Institute booklet (Anonymous, 1991). Today, BMPs focus on management inputs to provide for
• High input efƒciency • Maximum economic yield
while holding to those environmental practices needed to sustain good environmental stewardship by means of soil and water conservation. In addition, BMPs make provision for
• Improving food safety and quality • Promoting high quality plant production
as well as being sufƒciently ‰exible to accommodate for speciƒc soils, and other growing media and growing systems.
