Agroaldea
If the current rate of degradation continues, arable land will end in 60 years according to FAO.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launches the International Year of Soils 2015, which aims to “raise awareness about a more sustainable use of this critical resource”.
To generate three centimeters of arable land, you need 1.000 years and if current levels of degradation continue, all arable land could disappear in 60 years, indicate from the FAO.
With this action, FAO seeks to draw attention to the importance of soils for global food production and, at the same time, call on the international community to pay greater attention to them.
"Nowadays, more than 805 millions of people suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Population growth will require increasing food production by approximately 60 %. Since a large part of our food depends on the soils, It is easy to understand how important it is to keep them healthy and productive”, said the director general of the FAO, José Graziano da Silva.
“Unfortunately, One third of our global soil resources are being degraded and human pressure on them is reaching critical levels., reducing, and sometimes eliminating, the essential functions of the soil, he added.
The Rome-based organization insisted that “healthy soils not only form the basis for food, fuels, fibers and medical products”, They are also essential for ecosystems and play “a fundamental role in the carbon cycle.”, storing and filtering water.
In addition, The FAO emphasized that “a third of all soils are degraded, due to erosion, compaction, obturation, salinization, depletion of organic matter and nutrients, acidification, pollution and other processes caused by unsustainable land management practices”.
“Unless new approaches are adopted, The global area of arable and productive land per person will be equivalent to 2050 “only a quarter of the 1960 level.”, da Silva assured.
Graziano da Silva insisted that one centimeter of soil can take up to 1.000 years in training and emphasized that with a 33 % of all the world's degraded soil resources and increasing human pressure, critical levels are being reached that make their correct management an urgent matter.
At least a quarter of the world's biodiversity lives underground, where, for example, The earthworm is a giant next to small organisms such as bacteria and fungi.
These organisms, including plant roots, act as the main agents that drive nutrient recycling and help plants by improving the intake of these, in turn contributing to biodiversity above ground level, according to the statement.
Unless new approaches are adopted, the global amount of global arable and productive land per person in the 2050 will be barely a quarter of the level of 1960, due to increasing population and land degradation.
For this reason, The FAO maintains that “better management can ensure that these organisms increase the soil's capacity to absorb carbon and mitigate desertification.”, so that even more carbon can be captured, helping to offset greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture”.