
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 14, 1993                   TAG: 9307140123
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

WORLD'S FARMLAND ERODING, U.N. SAYS

As floods cause erosion and water damage along the Mississippi River, the United Nations reported Tuesday potentially more disastrous losses of farmland around the world.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 10 percent of the earth's arable land will lose much of its agricultural value in the next 20 years.

"It is terrifying to consider what is at stake," said Edouard Saouma, Lebanese director-general of the FAO in a statement accompanying the report.

The report, issued here as the U.S. government scrambled to repair the Midwest flood damage, said that globally in the next 20 years, 245 million acres (140 million hectares), an area the size of Alaska, will lose most of its agricultural productivity if nothing is done.

The villains are overgrazing, deforestation and poor land management leading to water and wind erosion and decreased fertility.

"Analysis of man-made land degradation raises a fundamental question," Saouma said. "Are we going to have enough good land to feed the extra 2.6 billion people who will be on this planet by the year 2025?"

Robert Brinkman, FAO's chief of soil resources, said there is no single fix for the problem but that a variety of proven measures suitable for specific regions could arrest the land loss.

The United States has lost about one-third of its topsoil to water and wind erosion since farming began. But Brinkman said conservation measures have helped bring the situation under control.

by CNB