Soil Erosion: Impacts and solutions
Written by: Admin
“Soil erosion is second only to population growth as the biggest environmental problem the world faces,” – David Pimentel, professor of ecology at Cornell University.
Source: wikipedia
Soil erosion is one of the forms of soil degradation. The lack of vegetation cover is the main cause of the soil erosion. Increasing population, irresponsible human activities, and mismanagement of soil are making most countries to lose soil at a much faster rate than the natural replenishment rate. Soil erosion is especially severe in the developing countries like China and India.
Here is the list of social, economic and environmental impacts of soil erosion:
- Billions of dollars in productivity loses
- Can possibly destroy civilization
- Food shortages
- Degrades soil fertility
- Reduces the ability of soil to support biodiversity
- Erosion on sloping land affects water availability
- Can cause silting in river and reservoirs
- Increases air pollutants due to higher dust caused by the wind
As human beings, our activities are responsible for removing the vegetation from areas, making the soil easily eroded.
Below are some of our direct or indirect activities that can result in soil erosion:
- Our use of hike trails and off road vehicles. Large number of hikers including me using trails or extensive off road vehicles can cause soil erosion by removing vegetation by foot traffic and off road vehicle tires.
- Our use of roads. Roads are likely to cause erosion because they remove vegetation ground cover. Roads can also significantly change drainage patterns.
- Owning a large house than our family perhaps need. Building a house results in deforestation by clearing the land and using large trees for materials. This can cause soil erosion. As human beings, our desire is always to own a large house for my family irrespective of the need. However, we ignore the adverse environmental effects that can be caused due to such desires.
- Wasting of food. We become part of the problem when we waste food because to grow crops, farmland needs to be increased. That means more deforestation.
- The excessive use of meat. As we use more meat for food in the house, it can result in overgrazing of livestock causing soil erosion.
Soil conservation and protection must be encouraged to reduce soil erosion. Individual and collective efforts are needed to contain the issue.
Below are some of the things we can do to help:
- Create awareness about the importance of soil
- Support organizations that are working for land conservation
- Change our habits and lifestyle to reduce needs
- Be cautious about our daily activities
- Improve farming techniques that reduce excess cultivations
- Improve soil and water management
- Ask government to implement consistent and long-term soil conservation programs
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March 16th, 2010 at 1:08 am
Support organic farming by purchasing organic foods and encourage your local retailer to stock organic produce.If you are a farmer, you can conserve your soil resources by using conservation tillage techniques to reduce soil disturbance and compaction and by reducing stocking rates to limit soil compaction. However, the best way to reduce erosion is by making sure the soil is covered by vegetation as much as possible. You can achieve this by revegetating areas of your farm with native trees and understorey plants, leaving crop stubble in place after harvesting and by including cover crops or pasture in your cropping rotations.
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