Soil loss and nutrient depletion due to crop harvesting: importance and determinant factors

Edible parts of some agricultural products are inside the soil, and some soil is then displaced when these products are harvested. This displaced or detached soil, damages the land i.e. reducing its fertility and soil quality, as well as significant health, environmental and economic consequences in different stages of the production to consumption chains, such as in time of delivering to plants factories and processing. In soil conservation science, this phenomenon is called harvesting erosion because the soil is removed from its original location and no longer comes back. Among the various processes of soil erosion that threaten sustainable agriculture, there is not much information about soil loss due to crop harvesting (SLCH) of roots, tubers, and onions of agricultural products. Since this important neglected issue is a common point of many agricultural specialties, such as soil and water conservation, watershed management, and post-harvest issues; this paper focuses on the importance and determinants factors of the occurrence and reduction of this phenomenon