Soil Erosion: Agriculture’s silent crisis

Abstract:

The world is facing population explosion and there is urgent need to increase farm productivity and total food production on sustainable basis without compromising on natural resources and environment. Due to intensive cropping, imbalanced use of fertilizers, unsustainable agricultural practices and cultivation of high yielding crop varieties leads to degradation of soil. Soil erosion is main contributor to soil degradation. All landforms are impacted by the naturally occurring process of soil erosion. Soil erosion in agriculture is the wearing down of a field's topsoil by wind, water, and other natural physical forces, or by forces related to farming operations like tillage. Three separate processes are involved in erosion, whether it is caused by water, wind, or tillage: soil detachment, movement, and deposition. One type of soil deterioration is soil erosion, which is the movement of the top layer of soil. The dynamic action of erosive agents—such as water, glaciers, snow, wind, plants, animals, and people causes this natural process. Soil erosion poses a serious threat to agriculture because it strips away the fertile topsoil needed for crop growth, leading to reduced yields, higher costs, and long-term land degradation. Farmers must adopt conservation practices like contour plowing, cover crops, and agroforestry to sustain productivity.