TY - JOUR T1 - An Assessment of Land Resource Consumption in Relation to Land Degradation in Turkey JF - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation SP - 253 LP - 259 VL - 55 IS - 3 AU - Cemil Cangir AU - Salim Kapur AU - Duygu Boyraz AU - Erjam Akça AU - Hari Eswaran Y1 - 2000/07/01 UR - http://www.jswconline.org/content/55/3/253.abstract N2 - Because of favourable land resources and its location at the hub of the Mediterranean civilizations, Turkey has been exploited for more than 3,000 years for that natural wealth. This left the southern Mediterranean coast—with its shallow and rocky karstic lands—denuded, the Anatolian plateau devoid of its unique forests and biodiversity zones, and the Black Sea coast gullied and desolate. Dogan (1998) reports that about 64% of the land in Turkey is subject to wind and water erosion, saline and alkaline soils occupy about 3.1% of the land (this area is constantly increasing due to poor irrigation management), and about 31% of the land has shallow or very gravely soils due to soil loss. Reduced land quality was not a concern until recently, when to feed and clothe the burgeoning population, the country had to rely not only on imported grain and feed but also on imported seeds, fertilizers, and agrichemicals to augment the low productivity levels. The reduced productivity of the land was masked by technological inputs to production and national policymakers were lulled into believing that sustainability could be achieved in the absence of disciplined land use. Countries face many … ER -