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Iran soil erosion pace disquieting

Business Materials 19 May 2015 18:01 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, May 19

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Head of Iran's Soil Science Society Manouchehr Gorji said that soil erosion in the country is at a critical level.

"We are witnessing events about the level of soil erosion in the country which sometimes we ignore," he said, IRNA reported May 19.

He called for using other countries' experiences in protecting the soil.

"The per capita share of farmland is declining rapidly, the reasons for which are population growth and shrinking farmlands," he stated.

Iran's cultivable land is limited and the existing farmlands cannot produce more than what they do now, according to Gorji, pointing out that of the country's 165-million hectare area, 90 million hectares cannot be cultivated and the rest is under various usages.

Farmland erosion rate in Iran is 20 times that of world standards, Nayereh Pirouzbakht, director of the National Iranian Standards Organization, said last October.

The amount of soil erosion in Iran is five times the world average, according to Iranian statistics. As the national population has increased three times over the past 45 years, the total area of forests and pastures has been significantly decreased.

Iran Forests, Range, and Watershed Management Organization said that soil erosion in the country is 16.7 metric tons per hectare annually. Iran is estimated to suffer an economic loss of $56 billion per year due to soil erosion.

Edited by CN

Follow the author on Twitter @mehdisepahvand

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