UNITED NATIONS GROUP BLAMES TRACTOR, PLOUGHS FOR POOR NATIONS' SOIL PROBLEMS
October 1, 2001
Caribbean News Agency, Barbados, West Indies
ROME -- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was cited
as saying on Monday that intensive land cultivation methods using tractors
and ploughs are a major cause of severe soil loss and land degradation in
many developing countries, especially in warmer areas, where the topsoil
layer is thin, conventional tillage contributes to soil loss. Land
degradation also occurs in industrialised countries due to exaggerated
mechanised tillage using powerful heavy machines, FAO noted.
If farmers applied ecologically sound cultivation and the concept of
'Conservation Agriculture', millions of hectares of agricultural land could
be protected or saved from degradation and erosion, FAO said on the occasion
of the opening of the World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, taking
place in Madrid/Spain (October 1-5).
FAO Assistant Director-General Louise Fresco was quoted as saying, "The way
soils are cultivated today needs to be changed. For agriculture to be
sustainable, economically attractive and socially acceptable, it must
successfully exploit the productive potential of those crop and animal
genetic resources which are best adapted to the local environment. This is
achieved by effectively and efficiey using available natural resources
without depleting them."