How serious is land degradation?
Land degradation is the process by which the soil’s current or future capacity to produce is lowered by chemical, physical or biological changes. Some analysts claim that accelerating land degradation will offset productivity improvements, while others believe the seriousness of this problem has been greatly overstated. The truth is that the area of degraded land is not known with much precision. Its assessment is often based on expert judgement rather than objective measurement. For India alone, estimates by different public authorities vary from 53 million ha right up to 239 million ha.
