Desire for Greener Land

Turkey – Eskişehir
The Eskeheşir study site has industrial activities and intensive agricultural land use in the form of irrigated sugar beet and
sunflower and rainfed cereals. The intensity of agriculture is expected to increase due the increased investments in the country.
The cropland experiences land degradation in the form of surface erosion by water, sealing and crusting, and soil fertility
decline and reduced soil organic matter content. Land degradation is most widespread and severe in the pastures close to
the settlements, especially in the central part of the area near the lake, where it causes a decline in the quality and diversity
of the species composition of the herbs.
Current land conservation is most widespread in the northern part of the area under pasture, where rotational systems are
being used to remediate surface erosion by water. The effectiveness is low to moderate. Conservation agriculture and mulching
are applied to remediate surface erosion and sealing and crusting in the cropland. The effectiveness to remediate soil
erosion is low. This book documents fodder crop production as a SLM technology to remediate respectively surface erosion
and quality and diversity decline in the pasture area.
242 DESIRE – WOCAT Desire for Greener Land