Soil degradation in Iran has already exceeded global standards to become a deepening crisis, said deputy head of Soil and Water Research Institute affiliated with the Agriculture Ministry. According to Mahmoud Arab-Khedri, soil erosion, a pressing but grossly neglected issue, has reached an annual 900 million tons, which means six tons per hectare, ISNA reported. The data, Arab-Khedri claimed, is reliable as it has been obtained through a rigorous study of national land surveys carried out by the research institute. Although soil erosion is a natural process, it becomes problematic when human activity causes it to occur much faster than what naturally happens. According to a 2012 report by the Agriculture Ministry, Iran's soil is affected largely by anthropogenic factors more than any other natural event.
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