Who is concerned by erosion control?
In general, big landowners ( > 500 ha) are usually little concerned by erosion, for they can easily abandon degraded land as wasteland. In France, erosion problems are relatively rare on smallholdings (livestock production or multi-cropping mixed with livestock), for the small farm units are often well manured by animals raised under the zero grazing system. The most enterprising farmers are in fact the ones with serious erosion problems, for they contract debts to purchase large tractors and other equipment to prepare seed beds in the most advanced manner, as well as heavy-duty trailers to transport harvests. They have accepted land consolidation in order to make their farms as cost-effective as possible by eliminating all obstacles (ditches, hedges, copses) that can impede the advance of machinery. It is the people downstream who actually raise the question of erosion control, when they suffer the ill-effects of peak runoff flows, pollution of groundwater and rivers, gullying, and mu
