Band 4+: The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 1990s. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

The pie chart indicates the factors that negatively affect the productivity of agricultural lands worldwide while the table data illustrates the percentage of land degradation in three main region due to those factors mentioned.

From the pie chart, it can be seen that the major factor that causes the worldwide land degradation is over grazing 35% of agricultural lands worldwide become less productive due to single factor over grazing. Deforestation is accounted for 30% degradation of cultivable land while over cultivation results 28% land degradation. All other minor reasons are categorised as other and constituted 7% loss of land fertility.

The given table data shows the percentages of agricultural land degradation in three regions during the 1990s namely North American, Europe area including New Zealand and Australia. The analysis shows that highest percentage of land degradation, 23% occurred in Europe in the 1990s. This is followed by Oceania and North America where these percentages were 13% and 5% respectively. The most striking feature was that over cultivation had zero impact in Oceania as it was mostly affected by over grazing.