The Hindu : International : Earth running out of fertile land: study

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 07, 2005

International

International

Earth running out of fertile land: study

Kate Ravilious

The research indicates there is little room for further agricultural expansion

San Francisco: New maps show that the Earth is rapidly running out of fertile land and that food production will soon be unable to keep up with the world's burgeoning population. The maps reveal that more than one third of the world's land is being used to grow crops or graze cattle.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison combined satellite land cover images with agricultural census data from every country in the world to create detailed maps of global land use. Each grid square was 10 km across and showed the most prevalent land use in that square, such as forest, grassland or ice.

``In the act of making these maps we are asking: where is the human footprint on the Earth?'' said Amato Evan, a member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison research team presenting its results this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

The current map shows a snapshot of global land use for the year 2000, but the scientists also have land use data going back to 1700, showing how things have changed.

``The maps show, very strikingly, that a large part of our planet (roughly 40 per cent) is being used for either growing crops or grazing cattle,'' said Navin Ramankutty, a member of the team. By comparison, only 7 per cent of the world's land was being used for agriculture in 1700. Meanwhile, intensive farming practices mean that cropland areas have decreased slightly in the U.S. and Europe and the land is being gobbled up by urbanisation.

The research indicates that there is now little room for further agricultural expansion.

``The question is, how can we continue to produce food from the land while preventing negative environmental consequences?'' said Dr Ramankutty. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International