Band 7.5 Model Answer, why agricultural land becomes less productive

The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 1990s.

The provided pie chart delineates the four principal causes of the degradation of the agricultural land in percentages, while the table elucidates the three continents where these causes affected differently, during1990s.

As can be seen clearly, the primary reason of land degradation is over-grazing, and according to the table, the most degraded region, in the 1990s, was Europe.

Particularly, over a third of the damaged soil is induced by over-grazing, and 30% due to deforestation. Simultaneously, over-cultivation is the third factor for the lower productivity of the earth with the figure standing at 28%. Other causes account for only 7%.

In 1990s, North America was the least affected continent, with 5% of its land experiencing damage, and the principal cause of that was over-cultivation with 3.3% and secondarily was over-grazing. In Oceania, interestingly, over-grazing caused the most degradation, with figure accounting for 11.3%, the greatest percentage of all the other places and factors. Finally, Europe witnessed 23% of its land being less productive, and the main reasons were deforestation and over-cultivation, with 9.8% and 7.7%, respectively.

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