The "Book of Trees," jointly written by Finnish author Risto Isomaki and Gandhi, says that the cultivation of fruit trees could take the pressure off farmlands due to depleting ground water and increasing pollution.

The book says that cultivating trees has a huge advantage as they can be grown on all types of land, even those not suitable for food crops.

Fruit trees occupy only two to three percent of the world's agricultural land, but contribute to five to seven percent of the total food production, it added.

It said that in a developing country such as India the groundwater was being consumed twice as fast as it is being replenished and the problem had been aggravated by loss of forest cover.

About 65 per cent of all agricultural lands in Africa, 45 per cent in South America and 38 per cent in Asia had already been degraded.

"Even much more than the growth of human population in itself, the so-called consumption explosion is increasing the pressures on our agricultural production systems at alarming rate," the book said.

The need for biomass fuels for vehicles, wood for paper mills as well as other types of consumption was putting more pressure on shrinking natural resources, it added.

TERRA.WIRE