Lentils, Chickpeas Can Help Reverse

Lentils, Chickpeas Can Help Reverse Dangerous Trend of Soil Erosion
Planting more lentils, chickpeas and other pulses will improve the health of the world's soils that have reached critical levels, threatening to worsen hunger and poverty levels, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday.
About a third of the world's soils are degraded because of soil erosion, contamination, urbanization and other issues. This is a rise from the early 1990s, when it was estimated to be between 16 and 24 percent, said Ronald Vargas, soils and land officer at the U.N. agency.
"If our soil is not healthy enough, we will have serious issues. It will take 15 years or more and a huge amount of investment to restore the soil,” Vargas told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The main form of degradation is soil erosion - the loss of the topsoil by wind, rain or excessive use of machinery. The world is currently losing soil 10 to 20 times faster than it is replenishing it, according to the FAO report.