What are the causes of soil degradation?
Soil erosion mostly occurs when there is no vegetation to protect the soil from being washed or blown away. Clearing forests, growing crops on steep slopes or on large fields without protection, can all lead to erosion. So can ploughing too deeply, failing to rotate crops, planting crops up and down hills rather than along their contours or grazing too many animals on one piece of land. Soil degradation in developing countries is closely linked to poverty: both personal and national. Poor farmers, with no resources to fall back on, may be forced to put immediate needs before the long-term health of the land. Governments, under pressure from foreign debt, weak commodity prices and the needs of their urban populations, coupled with domestic policies that are biased against agriculture, often fail to give adequate support to rural people. Fighting erosion The effects of erosion are legion. Soil washed off bare hillsides ruins aquatic habitats and clogs waterways. Reservoirs silt up, cutti
