Focus on... Combating desertification
Desertification is the degradation of land in dry regions of the world resulting from various factors including climate change and human activities. Most desertification currently occurs as a consequence of burgeoning populations and their impact on the land. The exact causes of desertification are often complex and arise from a variety of factors including settlement of marginal lands, overgrazing, poor management of water and soil, and changing climate with decreasing rainfall and greater incidence of drought.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and has been designated 'The International Year of Deserts and Desertification' In this edition of New Agriculturist, we focus on a variety of technologies, methodologies and policies that are being implemented to combat desertification and land degradation in various regions around the world.
Desertification is a complex phenomenon, adversely affecting the lives and livelihoods of over two billion people living in drylands that cover 40 per cent of the earth's surface. Human activities such as overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation practices, along with climate change, are turning once fertile soils into unproductive and barren patches of land. Desertification is both a cause and consequence of poverty and...
China: A vast land being swallowed
Green plains and rice paddy fields cover much of the surface of China. But with 20 per cent of the world's population, China has only seven per cent of the world's water resources, and a growing population is putting pressure on the country's natural resources. Is China turning to dust? High productivity targets and intensive agriculture have...
Mitigating desertification in Central Asia
Careful water use has not been a priority over recent decades in the Central Asian Republics. Desertification now threatens large areas of the region, and there is a desperate need for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to work together to address urgent water issues. With international help, including a new project that will gather and integrate data and information to produce 'usable science', the region may...
What is the truth about the drylands region south of the Sahara desert? Is the desert creeping inexorably south, as the rains become increasingly unreliable and desperate farmers wring the final nutrients from the soil? And in these remote regions where relatively few people live, does it make economic sense to invest scarce resources against this...
In the last four decades, more than half of the land on the plains of Lake Victoria in western Kenya has been abandoned as a result of soil degradation. Millions of tonnes of fertile soil are lost by soil erosion at an astonishingly fast rate. According to Dr Keith Shepherd at the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) "Over twenty years, land degradation can mean...
A 'FIRM' approach against desertification
As the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, the desert country of Namibia receives only low and erratic rainfall. And yet 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture. The majority of farmers are involved in livestock farming and dryland crop production, although irrigation schemes allow some production of high value crops for export. As in other semi-arid and arid regions...
Outlined by surrounding hills, blue skies stretch over a wide strip of Maasai land in the early evening breeze. Ogeli Ole Makui, a Masaai pastoralist, points to a thin line stitched into the sweeping plains. "If you look down southwards, that is the great north road. If you go along the tarmac road, you would be shocked by the intensity of fences there," he says. Fences crisscross the landscape, carving it into...
For further information see:
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
International Year of Deserts and Desertification
Scidev dossier on desert science
FAO website on desertification
CGIAR research on combating desertification
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1st July 2006 |
