ИСТИНА

Food security is the major challenge for the 21st century. The basic requirements of food security are stability of food production and sustainability of its increase along with increasing population, reducing poverty and improving nutrition. Agriculturalists face the challenge of the demand for increasing production with reducing arable land area, taking into account a requirement for reduced agrochemicals use. Soil scientists should develop new landscape adapted technologies to contribute to the sustainable intensification of agriculture, especially in the developing countries. The main trends of the development of agriculture in the future would be, on the one hand, smart land use planning and construction of artificial soilscapes, and, on the other hand, the use of new generations of biochemical fertilizers such as humates, biochar, etc. Closer interaction between the stakeholders is needed to improve physical availability of food in a global scale. According to the estimations of FAO, the agricultural production should be increased 70% until 2050 to ensure food security in the world. The task is complex, especially taking into account continuous decrease in the area of fertile arable land due to land degradation and urban sprawl. It is estimated that until 2050 the area of agricultural land per person would reduce to less than 0.2 hectare. Land degradation is a global phenomenon, but there is certain disproportion in its geographical distribution. It is believed that the main hotspots are Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia and Central America. Economics of land degradation (ELD) is a challenging initiative focused on the motivation of the decision makers to pay attention to land and soil degradation and thus promote sustainable land management approaches in land use. At the initial stage of its development the initiative provided global and regional overviews of the extent of land degradation and its economic effect, taking into account the loss of the major ecosystem services besides agricultural food production. Land degradation leads to the loss of multiple ecosystem services, including those related to soil functions, such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity maintenance, and filtering groundwater. Current approach to the ELD focuses mainly on the decision making on global and national level. Much should be done yet to include ELD in the management procedures at the farm level.