Urbanisation in rural areas - Soil Essentials: Managing Your Farm's Primary Asset - page 139

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Urbanisation in rural areas
The global situation
An area of great concern to agricultural planners is how to feed, clothe and shelter
the ever-increasing world population, which is expected to double by the year 2020.
The greatest concern is the area of quality agricultural land that is available, and
the rate of degradation of land currently used for agricultural purposes.
The increasing economic pressure to increase production from land currently
used for agriculture has led to a massive loss of soil fertility due to structural
decline, acidification and the various forms of erosion. To restore these degraded
soils is a massive task, which is probably beyond the scope of most farmers to
undertake without high levels of financial support. At the same time, quality
agricultural land is being lost to urbanisation at an alarming rate, which is having
the effect of placing even more demand for increased production from the
remaining agricultural land.
Globally, nearly all of the quality land is being utilised for agriculture, and the
remaining undeveloped areas are generally not suitable for sustainable agricultural
use, because of poor soil quality, unsuitable rainfall or other shortcomings of the
land.
Certainly, quality land is a finite resource, which needs to be recognised as
irreplaceable, and upon which the food and fibre for future generations depend.