1. ancient	very old
2. bountiful	plentiful
3. ecosystem	plants & animals living in an area with complex rel.with en
4. rapidly	quickly
5.barren	dry & bare; no vegetation
6.labour-intensive	requiring a lot of labour
7.organic agriculture	using natural fertilizer
8.nourish	provide with food for growth & gd health
9.ancestors	people from whom you come
10.mulch	mixture of rotten leaves & twigs put round plants to help growth
11.canal	a "river" made for boats
12.fertiliser	food for plants
13.entire	complete; all
14.peril	danger
15.dramatically	greatly
16.radical	drastic
17.transformation	change
18. excessive	too much
19.threatens	harms
20.crust	outside layer
21. manure	animal faeces
22.residues	small amounts that remain
23.harvest	gathering of a crop
24. advocate/proponent	one who recommends a plan or action publicly
25. erosion
26. counterparts	people in another place having similar functions or positions
27. aerial	from the sky
28.weed	wild plant
29. decline	drop
30. grain	crop
31.virtually	almost; very nearly true
32. yields	amounts of food produced
33. tiny	very small
34. plots	pieces of land
35. liberally	freely
36. defects	imperfections
37. vanishing	disappearing
38. migrate	move
39.quit	give up
40. Ironically	show odd or amusing situation because of a contrast
41. collapse	failure; coming to an end
44. proponents	advocates
45. guarantee	promise; certainty