"The world is preparing for the great battle of natural resources, and land is one of the increasingly scarce and sought-after resources," warns Francesc Reguant, president of the Agri-Food Economics Commission of the Col legi d'Economistes de Catalonia. Speculators are very aware of this and have begun to invest in this asset, increasing its price. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that, on average, the price of land has increased by 12.4% between 2021 and 2022 in that country.
"Countries like China or Saudi Arabia also buy land, especially in Africa, or they reach food supply agreements to be able to face possible future supply crises," adds the economist. In Catalonia and Spain, prices remain stable, but Reguant points out that "an increase in property purchases by financial funds is already being registered."
It is estimated that 95% of world food production depends on the soil. However, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification estimates that more than 33% of the Earth's soil is already degraded and that 90% could be degraded by 2050. From the global movement Save Soil (in Spanish, save the soil), point out that some areas of the world have already reached their “zero harvest”, as is the case of the Sahel region, in the north of Central Africa. Save Soil also denounces the situation in India, where 28 agricultural workers commit suicide every day due to the poor condition of their farmland.
Save Soil sources point out that the main causes of widespread soil degradation are deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices, inappropriate land use and overgrazing. If this continues, only 60 years of crops would remain, according to the UN, and by 2050, 90% of the Earth's topsoil is likely to be at risk. Europe is no stranger to this reality: between 60% and 70% of European soils are in an unhealthy state. In Spain, it is estimated that one fifth of the land is at risk of becoming a desert and 31.5% of the land is already affected by desertification.
Francesc Reguant brings to the table another added problem that is also behind the increase in the price of land: the competition exerted by new uses such as the cultivation of cereals for the production of biofuels instead of food, or the implantation of solar panels in cultivation areas. In the economist's opinion, this circumstance is especially serious in Catalonia, where only 26% of the territory is cultivated, half the European and world average. By inhabitants, Catalonia is among the areas with the least cultivated land per person in the world.
The natural process of reclamation of the earth is very slow, especially compared to the rate at which humanity destroys it. While an area equivalent to 30 football fields is degraded every minute in the world, the formation of between two and three centimeters of land takes up to 1,000 years. However, with proper management, agriculture can go from being part of the problem to returning to the land the fertility it thrives on thanks to what is known as regenerative agriculture.
Entities such as the Institute for Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (Creaf) and the University of Lleida (UdL) are investigating how to apply regenerative agriculture and restore lost fertility to the land. Broadly speaking, the objective is to increase the organic content of the soil so that it becomes a minimum of 3% to 6%, compared to 1% or less for half of the farmland in Spain.
