A third of the planet’s land is severely degraded and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24bn tonnes a year, according to a new United Nations-backed study that calls for a shift away from destructively intensive agriculture. The alarming【C1】_____, which is forecast to continue as demand for food and productive land increases, will add to the risks of conflicts unless【C2】______actions are implemented, warns the institution behind the report.

“As the ready supply of healthy and productive land dries up and the population grows, competition is【C3】_____for land within countries and globally,” said executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at the launch of the Global Land Outlook. “To【C4】_____the losses, the Outlook suggests it is in all our interests to step back and rethink how we are managing the pressures and the competition.”

The Global Land Outlook is【C5】_____as the most comprehensive study of its type, mapping the interlinked impacts of urbanization, climate change, erosion and forest loss. But the biggest factor is the【C6】__of industrial farming. Heavy tilling, multiple harvests and【C7】__use of agrochemicals have increased yields at the【C8】__of long-term sustainability. In the past 20 years, agricultural production has increased threefold and the amount of irrigated land has doubled, notes a paper in the Outlook by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European commission. Over time, however, this【C9】__fertility and can lead to abandonment of land and【C10】_____desertification.

A) absorb F) expansion K) occasionally

B) abundant G) expense L) optimizes

C) billed H) intensifying M) rate

D) decline I) limited N) remedial

E) diminishes J) minimize O) ultimately

【C2】