Soil erosion in Romanian agriculture

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of soil erosion in Romania’s agriculture as the main phenomenon of land resource degradation. The size of the phenomenon is estimated at more than 50% of the country's arable land area. In terms of regional distribution, the most affected areas of the country are those from Transylvania, the Sub-Carpathians and the Plateau of Moldova. There were assessed the erosion extent and the losses in terms of harvest and soil. The anti-erosion works were included among the main land reclamation works. However, within this ranking, soil erosion was on the last place, after irrigation and drainage, although experts in the field consider it the worst because soil losses due to erosion are unrecoverable. At the end of 1989, from a program providing for 5,500 thousand ha equipped for irrigation, 5,530 thousand ha of drainage, 5,300 thousand ha of anti-erosion facilities, there were achieved in percentage terms: 56.5% - irrigation, 55.8% - drainage, and anti-erosion facilities- only 41.9% (2,220 thousand ha). The economic efficiency of erosion control works has been assessed at a yield increase of 20-25%, with an additional financial supplement of less than 10%. In conclusion, the authors consider that the current land policy, which gives absolute priority only to the rehabilitation of irrigation systems, does not correspond to the requirements for preserving the best land resource, i.e. the soil.