Question

3. What are the 3 major causes of loss of arable land and explain each of the 3, how and why do they occur?

Please include any citations if used and answer THOROUGHLY AND COMPLETELY PLEASE.

Answer 1

Arable land is the land that can be used for growing crops. This portion of lands are decreasing in amount for various human practices through ages.

33% of the world’s high producing land have been lost at a rate that is far more than the rate of replenishment of the topsoil.

Excess plaughing of the topsoil is one of the major causes of loss of the soil. This causes the loss of oxygen stored in the soil and the carbon in it is exposed to open air. This decreases the binding capacity of the soil. The resultant soil then become unable to hold water and loses its capacity to act as a buffer for the floods and base of the plants.

Deforestation is another cause of soil loss. Large trees are capable of holding the soil at its place by the means of its roots, but when we plant crops at their places, the capacity to hold the soil degrades and the soil gradually become infertile.

Excessive use of fertilizers is the third major cause of the degrading quality of agricultural soil. Excessive use of inorganic fertilizers to increase the production of crops cause the soil characters to alter over time and thus make it infertile.