IELTS JOURNAL 45 In less enlightened countries, and in the European Union, the trend has been to reduce
rather than eliminate subsidies, and to introduce new payments to encourage farmers
to treat their land in environmentally friendlier ways, or to leave it fallow. It may sound
strange but such payments need to be higher than the existing incentives for farmers
to grow food crops. Farmers, however, dislike being paid to do nothing. In several
countries they have become interested in the possibility of using fuel produced from
crop residues either as a replacement for petrol (as ethanol) or as fuel for power
stations (as biomass). Such fuels produce far less carbon dioxide than coal or oil, and
absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. They are therefore less likely to contribute to the
greenhouse effect. But they are rarely competitive with fossil fuels unless subsidised -
and growing them does no less environmental harm than other crops. Questions 10 – 12 Choose the appropriate letters A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes 10-12 on your answer sheet. 10. Research completed in 1982 found that in the United States soil erosion A reduced the productivity of farmland by 20 per cent. B was almost as severe as in India and China. C was causing significant damage to 20 per cent of farmland. D could be reduced by converting cultivated land to meadow or forest. 11. By the mid-1980s, farmers in Denmark A used 50 per cent less fertiliser than Dutch farmers. B used twice as much fertiliser as they had in 1960. C applied fertiliser much more frequently than in 1960. D more than doubled the amount of pesticide they used in just 3 years. 12. Which one of the following increased in New Zealand after 1984?
