Land degradation as an issue in Agro-ecosystems: A review of underlying causes

Land degradation is a big issue in agro ecosystems in developing, transition economy and developed countries. This problem affects negatively agriculture productivity and production in rural areas of all countries where most people depend on the agriculture activities to survive and satisfy their needs. Therefore it impacts food security, poverty, livelihood and wellbeing of rural populations. Factors such as poverty, population growth or pressure, climate change, human activities (intensification of agriculture, industrialization and urbanization), poor awareness and lack of institutions and poor governance (poor policies and management) are causing and increasing land degradation and its negatives consequences on agro ecosystems functions and services. Some of these causes are also initiated and increased by land degradation (vicious circle). This emphasis the needs to identifying and understand the real causes of land degradation and explain how some are interlinked to the latter in order to develop better and proper solutions to eradicate or mitigate the its unwanted effects