The pie chart shows why agricultural land is losing its productivity around the world. The table shows how these reasons affected three regions during the 1990s.
Overall over-grazing was the reason for land becoming less productive. Other reasons were not as important. In the regions Europe had the highest amount of land becoming less productive. This was very different from North America, which had the amount. Also the main reason for land becoming less productive was different in each of the three regions.
Globally over-grazing was responsible for the part of the land that became less productive. It was 35 percent. Deforestation and over-cultivation were next with 30 percent and 28 percent. The rest of the reasons made up only 7 percent. This means that the three main human activities were responsible for most of the land becoming less productive. That was 93 percent.
Looking at the numbers Europe had the highest amount of land becoming less productive. It was 23 percent. The main reasons were deforestation at 9.8 percent and over-cultivation at 7.7 percent. North America had the lowest amount of land becoming less productive. It was 5 percent. The main reason there was over-cultivation at 3.3 percent. Oceania had a total of 13 percent of land becoming less productive. The main reason was over-grazing at 11.3 percent. Over-cultivation had no effect all, in Oceania.