Land Degradation In Developing Countries

Many of the scientists agree with that the period of agricultural revolution has been occurring during 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe as a result of technological improvement and increased crop productivity. During the industrial revolution much more land had been taken under the plough to produce a greater agricultural production such as wheat and livestock forcing the ability of soils by means of several mechanization tools.

Total land area of the world is about 13.5 billion hectares and only 22% (3.03 billion hectares) of that is actually cultivable and about 66% (2 billion hectares) is degraded. The soil loss was expected to go up to 10 million hectares annually by 2000 A.D. (Yadav, 1996). In India alone, almost 57% of total land area (about 188 million hectares) is degraded (Sehgal and Abroll, 1994).

Sedimentation and pollution in the streams or rivers causes effecting the life duration and quality of fish and other species. Land degradation are also reducing the water holding capacity of soil on the contrary, increased by flooding and leaching of water and nutrient losses mainly as nitrate form. The other substantial change in land usage is the maintaining of sustainability. According to FAO statistics, 28% of the total earth surface have any limits on its use for agriculture while 28% is too dry, 23% has chemical imbalances, 10% is too wet, 6% is permanently frozen, and remaining 22% the soil is to shallow for use as arable land. Altgouhg there are some discussions about the renewable subject of soil today, generally if the soil formation rate exceed the degredation rate, soil is accepted as renewable, on the contrary the degredation surpasses the formation, soil is accepted as