Soil Degradation

DEGRADATION OF SOIL, CONSERVATION AND REMEDIATION

By: SIVAKUMARAN SIVARAMANAN

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Soil degradation is one of the major global threats. Mainly in countries like Africa, Australia, China and some part of US effects of top soil erosion are being increasingly realized. According to UNCCD, globally 2.6 billion people depend on agriculture but 52% of the land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation, land degradation affects 1.5 billion people globally, due to drought and desertification annually 12 million hectares are lost where 20 million tons of grain could have been grown, 74% of the poor are directly affected by land degradation, about 1 billion people do not have sufficient food and access to safe water and It had been agreed at Rio + 20 that natural capital mainly the land resources are the foundation of our society and economy, this is a major vision of the sustainable development goals (SDG s) and 2015 development agenda of the UN. This review is conducted based on the Khan Towhid Osman’s book on Soil degradation, conservation and remediation published by Springer 2014. Book summarizes the contents briefly in terms of analyzing causes, soil conservation and remediation techniques.