Why massive effort
needs to be put into
growing trees on farms
Philip Dobie:
Senior Fellow, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
I
t’s now over 50 years since the world
was first warned that resources were being
used at an unsustainable rate. It has now
been estimated that almost one quarter to
one third of the world’s land is degraded to
some extent.
Degradation refers to land that’s lost nutrients,
or has changed physically, and therefore
produces less or supports less life. This is
mostly caused by the loss of soil, changes in
the quality of the soil, or changes to land cover
– like trees being cut down.
About 20% of agricultural land and 40% of
forests are degraded. Degradation reduces
our capacity to feed a world population that
will reach at least 9 billion people by 2050 and
it destroys ecosystem services – like the supply
of clean water. Also, when soil is degraded,
and trees destroyed, the carbon they contain
India has developed a pioneering national agroforestry policy. Suleman Merchant/
Shutterstock
AgriKultuur |AgriCulture
36