Reducing soil erosion and the loss of soil fertility for environmentally-sustainable agricultural cropping and livestock production systems

Abstract

My proposals for reducing soil erosion are based on my experience of assessing erosion, largely in Britain, both of cultivated land and of upland grazings. I have assessed the extent and rates of erosion in the field mostly by using easily- and rapidly-used photographic and measurement techniques, rather than by using experimental plots set up either in the field or laboratory which overstate erosion. Policies which have governed the economics of agricultural production have also been examined. Much of the increase in occurrence of runoff and soil erosion in Britain is due to changes in land use and in intensity of use since the Agriculture Act was passed in 1947, and especially since joining the Common Market in 1973, with its even greater emphasis on paying for increased production. The increasing numbers of animals grazing the land, especially sheep, led to the initiation and erosion of bare soil in the uplands and to trampling and puddling of soils in lowland pastures. There is evidence that runoff from the land, and sedimentation of water courses have also increased. In the cultivated lowlands, the expansion in area of land drilled to winter cereals, the increase in area of land sown to maize or used to rear outdoor pigs, changes in farming techniques, and larger machines working in larger fields can explain much of the increase in erosion. Reversing some of these changes, for example by lowering the intensity of grazing and inserting grass (set-aside) into the arable rotation will reduce the extent of erosion. Other techniques to reduce erosion are well-known but need national and international agricultural policies that improve farmers' incomes to bring them into use. In developed countries, erosion need not reduce soil fertility, as nutrients removed from the soil by animals or crops can be affordably replaced. This may not be so in other parts of the world. Education of farmers also has a vital role to play in persuading them to use the land more sustainably, for many of the impacts of erosion such as flooding and pollution of water supplies bear on society as a whole, not just farmers who are themselves little affected. The principles devised to reduce erosion in developed countries are likely to be successful in developing countries. However, it may take many years for better and more sustainable agricultural policies at national and international level to be devised and brought into being.