Abstract:
Land degradation through erosion processes is probably the most restrictive issue regarding
the sustainable agricultural use of land resources in contemporary Romania. The socio-economic
changes that occurred in Romanian society after 1990 resulted in a sharp decline in the implementation
of conservation practices along with an increase in intensity of land degradation. Consequently,
the present paper firstly aims to analyse the actual spread and intensity of land degradation in the
Puriceni-Bahnari catchment, representative area in terms soil erosion within Moldavian Plateau of
Eastern Romania. Secondly, the achievement of a dedicated project at the level of the entire basin
regarding the implementation of land conservation practices is the most suitable solution for the
sustainable agricultural use of this fragile natural resource. The results prove the severe degradation
state of the agricultural land, with a mean value of annual soil loss of 15.46 t ha1 yr1 (13,500 t yr1).
Furthermore, 460 ha of agricultural lands (72.7% of total) falls within the category that exceeds the
limit of admissible erosion of 7 t ha1 yr1. As a solution to the existing land use pattern, we
designed a map of proposed conservation measures and works on agricultural land for the whole
catchment that can be relatively easily implemented and conserve soil and water. The main issues
of the proposed land use pattern are: (1) the entire cropland must be reduced and changed to a
strip-cropping system; (2) the quality of the pastures should be improved; (3) the forested area must
be substantially extended, especially on account of unproductive land, and (4) the agricultural road
network must be halved and entirely reshaped. In conclusion, the large-scale implementation of
conservation practices on degraded agricultural land is the only rational solution for sustainable
development of poor local communities in the hilly areas from eastern Romania.
