HYDERABAD, Dec 15: The Soil Science Society of Pakistan has said thousands of hectares of fertile land have been affected by water and wind erosion in arid and semi-arid regions in the country.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Monday, Dr Nisar Ahmad, Dr Mohsin Iqbal, Dr Mohammad Ibrahim, Prof Qazi Suleman Memon and other office-bearers of the society said the country had a total area of 79.6 million hectares, 27.7 per cent of which was cropped.

They said more land could be brought under cultivation if the problem of water shortage was resolved.

They said the desertification problem had been aggravated due to the mismanagement of marginal lands, overgrazing, over cultivation and the improper cropping system. They said surface crusting was also impeding the productivity of lands due to poor management.

They pointed out that the country’s 32 per cent population was food insecure and lived below the poverty line. The majority of the poor and undernourished lived in rural areas and depended on agriculture, which contributed 25 per cent to the GDP, they further said.

They said although Pakistan was blessed with all types of climates, serious concerns were being expressed about the degradation of its natural resources and water scarcity.

They observed that salinity, decrease in soil fertility, overgrazing, deforestation, drought, use of brackish water and inappropriate agricultural practices accounted for most of the degradation. Globalization, population pressure, lack of access to markets and credit had also added to the problems, they added.

The office-bearers said keeping in view these challenges, the society was holding its 10th congress for the first time in Sindh at the Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam, from March 16 to 19.

They said 450 soil specialists from all over the country and abroad would attend the congress.

They also expressed alarm over the increasing population and diminishing food resources due to land erosion and other factors and said the world was in for trouble if no remedial steps were taken.

The society office-bearers said about 1.2 billion people of the world earned less than one dollar a day and 800 million were food insecure.

They said 1.3 billion people in developing countries survived on fragile lands that presented significant constraints to intensive agriculture.

They said half a billion people in developing countries lived in arid regions with no access to irrigation system while another 400 million lived on land which was unsuitable for agriculture.

In South Asia, they said 330 million people lived on fragile lands.