Earth and Chemical Deterioration
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Chemical Deterioration
The productive capacity of much arable land is diminishing because soil is becoming degraded. Worldwide nearly 2 billion hectares of crop and grazing land, an area larger than the United States and Mexico combined suffer from moderate to severe soil degradation.
The main causes are soil erosion, loss of nutrients, damage from inappropriate farming practices, and the misuse of agricultural chemicals. Chemical Deterioration must be solved as soon as possible, or the entire earth maybe uninhabitable soon.
In the Philippines, an estimated 1.2 million hectares of cropland, roughly one-fourth of the total have been severely degraded by pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Each year wind and rain erode an estimated 25 billion metric tons of topsoil from World's croplands. The United States has lost one-third of its topsoil since colonial times
On June 17, 2002- Hong Kong, an address on Sustainable Agriculture was made at the Environment Committee Meeting of American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong
In it the environmental problems caused by fertilizers were discussed such as; chemical fertilizer leaching, a serious issue which has aroused worldwide concerns, and has put sustainable agriculture on the priority agenda in many countries.
Cited was Australia as an example of how NutriSmart, the Group's eco-fertilizer, could be a viable solution to the agricultural pollution problem and play an effective role in sustainable farming.
United Nations Population Fund estimated that 5 to 7 million hectares of agricultural land are lost to accelerating land degradation and rapid urbanization each year...