Why is soil erosion such a problem?
Soil erosion and land degradation are perhaps the greatest environmental issues facing most regions and societies at this time. Although irrevocably linked to deforestation and pollution problems, soil erosion is bigger than the sum of these two crises combined. All agricultural practices depend on a stable and productive soil for their long term sustainablility. . Soil erosion leads to the gradual loss of fertility in the landscape. Soil is a living entity that is formed gradually through ecological and geological processes. Soil degradation is then the loss of production and inturn the loss of dependent plants and animals. Land degradation is not a new phenomenum, human societies have been degrading environments through their cultural practices for thousands of years. Perhaps the root cause of soil erosion is mankinds general lack of understanding of the complex natural systems that constantly interact to produce dynamic and stable global ecosystems Today the scale of the impact is g