Heavy tilling, multiple harvests and abundant use of agrochemicals have increased yields at the expense of long-term sustainability. She said the fact that a third of land is now degraded should prompt more urgent action to address the problem. “It’s quite a scary number when you consider rates of population growth, but this is not the end of the line. High levels of food consumption in wealthy countries such as the UK are also a major driver of soil degradation overseas. On Monday, Brazil and India were the latest countries to outline their plan to reach “land degradation neutrality”.

Source: The Guardian September 12, 2017 17:15 UTC