DESERTIFICATION Desertification is the degradation of land in drylands (B.A. Sheikh and G.H. Soomro 2006).

Caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities, desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification defines it as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities (UNCCD 1994). Desertification is essentially a result of soil degradation. The direct effect of land degradation is either a decrease of land productivity or the complete abandonment of agricultural land, which leads to the food crisis confronted by arid regions. Severe soil degradation may ultimately result in complete desertification. Deserts all over the world are known to be increasing at the expense of agricultural land and this is most severe in arid and semi-arid regions (B.A. Sheikh and G.H. Soomro, 2006).It is also accompanied by a reduction in the natural potential of the land and depletion in surface and ground-water resources. But above all it has negative repercussions on the living conditions and the economic development of the people affected by it. Desertification not only occurs in natural deserts, but can also take place on land which is prone to desertification processes. This include refers to the formation and expansion of degraded soil, not to the advancing movement of the current deserts. Desertification is found on every continent except Antarctica, but international attention has focused mostly on Africa, particularly the region known as the Sahel, the region of northern Africa immediately to the south of the Sahara desert. Desertification has been recognized as a problem since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s in the Midwestern United States, but it only became an international issue during the Great Drought in the Sahel between 1968 and 1973. Scientists across the world, are of the opinion that desertification is the result of climatic variations and atmospheric changes. But all of them now accept that some human activities are the real causes behind the desertification in the current age. The whole world agrees that desertification has many serious consequences that cause suffering and dangers to the whole life existing in the particular areas, and also, that disrupt many of the environmental processes in those areas. Some of the remarkable causes of desertification and its consequences are mentioned below.

Desertification has sometimes been mistakenly described as the expansion of deserts into nondesert areas. Pictures of sand dunes engulfing agricultural lands encourage this misconception, but this type of desertification is rare. Arid and semiarid lands can be degraded even if there is no adjacent desert. Drought has also mistakenly been called the primary cause of desertification. Desertification can occur without drought, and drought can occur without resulting in desertification. Desertification occurs in cropland (both irrigated and non irrigated), pasture, and woodlands. Loss of soil, deterioration of soil, and loss of natural vegetation all lead to desertification. Drought, a period of unusually dry weather, can cause loss of vegetation, which in turn leads to desertification. Poor land management and increasing population are factors that promote increased irrigation, improper cultivation or overcultivation, and increased numbers of livestock. These events alter the land and the soil, diminish the resources, and increase the chances of desertification. Causes of desertification The interactions between environmental change and human societies have a long and complex history spanning many millennia. They vary greatly through time and from place to place. Crucial to the emergence of this perspective, has been the dawning awareness, of two aspects of earth system functioning. First, that the earth itself is a single system within which the biosphere is an active essential component. Secondly, these human activities now are so pervasive and profound in their consequences that, they affect the earth at a global scale in complex, interactive and apparently accelerating ways. Humans now have the capacity to alter the earth system in ways that, threaten the very processes and components, both biotic and abiotic (upon which the human species depends) ultimately leading to loss of productivity and desertification(Green facts report, 2005). The major causes of land degradation are deforestation, shifting cultivation practices in agriculture, and over-grazing. Land degradation now affects the lives of hundreds of millions of people and is hampering the development of countries. Stopping land degradation is a high priority in many areas of the world. Two-thirds of the worlds degraded lands are found in Asia and Africa, but human-induced degradation is most severe in Africa, where 30% of the agricultural land, pastures, forests, and woodlands are degraded, followed by Asia (27%) and

Latin America (18%). Most of the degradation is taking place on agricultural and pasture lands, which are major sources of food, incomes, and employment for rural people in many developing countries. Desertification is described as "The diminution or destruction of the biological potential of the land which can lead ultimately to desert-like conditions. It is an aspect of the widespread deterioration of ecosystems, with diminished or destroyed biological potential, i.e. plant and animal production, for multiple purposes at a time when increased productivity is needed to support growing populations in quest of development. Important factors in contemporary societythe struggle for development and the efforts to increase food production, and to adapt and apply modern technologies, set against a background of population growth and demographic changes interlock in a network of cause and effect for desertification. Desertification contributes to other environmental crises, such as the loss of biodiversity and global warming. The deterioration of productive ecosystems is an obvious and serious threat to human progress. In general, the quest for enhanced productivity has intensified exploitation and has carried disturbance by man into less productive and more fragile lands. Over exploitation gives rise to degradation of vegetation, soil and water. These three elements serve as the natural foundation for human existence. In exceptionally fragile ecosystems, such as those on the desert margins, the loss of biological productivity through the degradation of plant, animal, soil and water resources can easily become irreversible, and permanently reduce their capacity to support human life. Land degradation is both a cause and a consequence of rural poverty. Therefore, desertification leads to poverty, and poverty leads to further desertification. The causes of desert formation include frequent droughts, deforestation, extensive cultivation, overgrazing and also industrialization/urbanization without environment considerations (B.A. Sheikh and G.H. Soomro, 2006). Drought Drought is a condition of abnormally dry weather within a geographic region where some rain might be or usually be expected. The term drought is applied to a period in which an unusual scarcity of rain causes a serious hydrological imbalance: Water-supply reservoirs empty, wells dry up, and crop damage ensues. Droughts are short-term and cyclical. By themselves, they do not degrade the land However; they intensify the pressures that lead to mismanagement of land, plant, and water resources. Drought affected semi-arid regions are considered one of the main

causes of desertification encroachment. Drought can be attributed to inadequate seasonal precipitation, a prolonged dry season or a series of sub-average rainy seasons. While dryland rainfall is low on average, it is extremely variable from year to year and from place to place. Native plants and animals have adapted to this variability. For example, the seeds of many desert plants can remain dormant through several years of drought, waiting for a good rain to sprout. In order to survive in this harsh environment, humans must adapt their activities as well. However, many factors, including population growth, poverty, politics, disrupted social institutions, and the pursuit of short-term economic opportunity, may work together to promote unsustainable practices. Extensive Cultivation The most common cause of desertification is the over cultivation of desert lands (Mares, Michael S, 1999). Over-cultivation causes the nutrients in the soil to be depleted faster than they are restored. A rapid increase in human and animal populations necessitates a corresponding expansion of cultivated areas; leading to land over-utilization and thus causing land degradation. Over cultivation or the introduction of nonnative plant species, can lead to the loss of topsoil and degradation of the soil. Before the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, high wheat prices and favorable climatic conditions in the Midwestern United States encouraged early 20th-century settlers to convert native grasslands to cropland. The native grasses had held the fine-grained soil in place in spite of recurrent droughts and strong winds. The crops planted by the settlers, however, were adapted to neither drought nor wind. When the drought came in the 1930s, the crops failed. Without the cover of crops to protect the soil, the soil began to blow away. In many places, 8 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) of topsoil vanished in the wind. When the rains returned, the farms were less productive due to the loss of much of their nutrient-rich topsoil. The crop failures and subsequent declines in production ruined many farms. As in other arid lands, many families had few options other than migration. Irrigation Improper irrigation practices result in salinated soils, and depletion of aquifers (Ci, Longjun & Yang, Xiaohui (2010). ) Ironically, the availability of water for irrigation can cause

desertification. Nearly all irrigation water contains some salt. If an irrigation system lacks a good drainage system, then the salt accumulates in the soil. Eventually, the salt reaches levels toxic to most plants. This problem is now jeopardizing about one-third of the worlds irrigated land. For example, in the Euphrates Valley of Syria, irrigation costs dropped with the introduction of diesel pumps in the 1940s, encouraging development of new croplands. By 1980 half the land area had extremely high salt concentrations and a large part of the area had been abandoned. Similar events have occurred in Queensland, Australia; in the Indus Valley of Pakistan; and in the Imperial and Coachella valleys in California. Overgrazing Overgrazing, which in time can change grassland to desert, and careless cultivation have had disastrous effects in certain parts of the United States (see Drought; Dust Bowl). Some historians believe that soil erosion has been a determinant in the complex of causes underlying various population shifts and the fall of certain civilizations. Ruins of towns and cities have been found in arid regions, such as the deserts of Mesopotamia, indicating that agriculture was once widespread in the surrounding territory. Soil and Water Factors Life on earth depends on the layer of soil that is the source of nutrients for plants, crops, forests, animals and people. Without it, ultimately none can survive. Although topsoil takes a long time to build up, if mistreated it can vanish in just a few seasons due to erosion by wind and water. Different types of soil because of their contents and composition are also more prone to erosion leading to desertification. A number of different factors may be distinguished: Soil moisture content: only dry soils undergo erosion due to a total loss of moisture. Soil texture: fine particles are more vulnerable to erosion than coarse ones. Cementing materials: an absence of cementing materials (such as organic matter) makes soil more prone to erosion. Poorly drained irrigation practices turn cropland salty and desertify 500,000 hectares annually (Glantz, M.H, 1977). Without human activities, losses of soil through erosion would in most areas probably be balanced by the formation of new soil. On virgin land a mantle of vegetation protects the soil. When rain falls on a surface of grass or on the leaves of trees, some of the moisture evaporates before it can reach the ground. Trees and grass serve as windbreaks, and a network of roots helps

to hold the soil in place against the action of both rain and wind. Agriculture and lumbering, as well as housing, industrial development, and highway construction, however, partially or wholly destroy the protective canopy of vegetation and greatly speed up erosion of certain kinds of soils. Erosion is less severe with crops such as wheat, which cover the ground evenly, than with crops such as corn and tobacco, grown in rows.

Deforestation The disappearance of many trees from rain-fed areas has contributed significantly to land degradation and the deterioration of soil fertility. Forests are constantly being cut down for fuel and negligible replanting is carried out. Massive deforestation for various activities which include; extension/growth and mechanization of agriculture, pasture development,

industrialization, mining, urbanization etc. This absence of forests results in extensive wind erosion, and the microclimate becomes increasingly arid as witnessed in Kenyan case of Mau forest. The dry season becomes more accentuated and precipitation decreases.

Overgrazing In the past, nomadic herdsmen maintained the delicate balance between livestock numbers and the carrying capacity of pasture. But this balance has recently been disturbed, through the expansion of dry farming in traditional grazing lands and an increase in animal populations. Apart from the degradation of natural vegetation cover, over-grazing results in a decrease in the quality of rangelands.

Industrialization / Urbanisation Industries also entail a large chunk of agriculture land be it in coastal, urban or rural area. There is nothing wrong to set it up. But it is more often observed if environment protection safeguards are not in place. The problem is more severe and complicated in developing world. So much so the area around industries is denuded of total vegetation in miles long stretches all around making land totally degraded to desertification. Urbanization is also encroaching upon agricultural lands causing immense damage to our natural resources.

Climatic Considerations Climate relates to climate variability, climate change, or drought. The frequently occurring drought episodes have been cited a major cause of desertification, as during extended dry spells desertification becomes relatively more severe, widespread, and visible, and its rate of occurrence increases manifold (Hare, K, 1977). The probability of droughts increases from the humid to the more arid regions, so, too, does the lands proneness to desertification. Land forms, soils, and vegetation are often transformed during extended drought periods.

Desertification is caused by a combination of social, political, economic, and natural factors which vary from region to region(Green facts 2005). A political change in Mauritania was largely responsible for the desertification that began there in the 1960s. Prior to Mauritanias gain of independence in 1960, Mauritanian pastoralists could freely move south into Senegal during times of drought. The border established at the time that independence was gained restricted these traditional movements. This blockage increased competition for the limited forage available and resulted in overgrazing during times of drought. The consequence was a general decline in nomadic pastoralism, or livestock rearing, and an increase in Mauritanias urban population. Effects of Desertification A large majority of dryland populations live in developing countries. Compared to the rest of the world, these populations lag far behind in terms of human well-being, per capita income, and infant mortality. The situation is worst in the drylands of Asia and Africa. Dryland populations are often marginalized and unable to play a role in decision making processes that affect their well-being, making them even more vulnerable (Green facts,2005). Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification and one billion people in over 100 countries are at risk. Fighting against desertification is essential to ensuring the long-term productivity of inhabited drylands. Unfortunately, past efforts to combat to the ever-increasing problem have often failed (Rozanov, B.G. 1981), as a result of which the land degradation problem continues to worsen. One quarter of the earths surface is threatened by desertification-an area of over 3.6 billion hectares. Since 1990, 6 million hectares of productive land are lost every year due to land degradation. The worlds drinking water supplies have fallen by almost two thirds since 1950.

Every year, 12 million people die as a result of water shortages or contaminated drinking water. Desertification threatens the livelihoods of one billion people and has already made 135 million people homeless (Leighton, M. 1999). Desertification has environmental impacts that go beyond the areas directly affected. For instance, loss of vegetation can increase the formation of large dust clouds that can cause health problems in more densely populated areas, thousands of kilometers away. Moreover, the social and political impacts of desertification also reach non-dryland areas. For example, human migrations from drylands to cities and other countries can harm political and economic stability. Worlds animal life is under pressure, facing threats that include habitat loss from forest clearance, agriculture, and herding, desertification, accompanied by simplification of native plant and animal communities. As spaces for wildlife shrink and corridors linking areas of habitat are cut, the survival of healthy species populations especially of larger animals and highly specialized species becomes more tenuous. In most cases of desertification, there is a reduction in total species richness, an increase in the proportion of exotic (nonnative) plants, and a decline in overall biodiversity the variety of life forms and the ecological roles they fill. Once desertification starts, it often causes changes that accelerate the process. For example, desertification often results in a decrease in the amount of vegetation covering the land. With less vegetation providing shade, soil temperatures rise, accelerating the breakdown of organic matter in the soil and the evaporation of water. Some soils may become compacted or crusted, reducing their ability to absorb the limited rainfall that occurs, which further reduces the amount of water available for plants. The absence of vegetation also enhances runoff and erosion by water and wind. Erosion may form deep gullies, lowering the local water table (level of water within the ground) and making less water available for plants e.g. South Africa is losing about 300 to 400 million tones of top soil every year. Wind erosion blows away nutrients in the soil and may physically damage plants. Each of these effects makes plant growth more difficult and may further reduce the amount of vegetation covering the land, which in turn leads to more degradation. For land managers, desertification is a downward spiral. As it proceeds, the impact of any downturn, such as a drought, may become catastrophic and result in loss of human lives due to

lack of necessary resources, such as water. With diminishing productivity and profitability comes increased pressure to compensate for declines. Livestock grazers increase herd sizes, and farmers plant all available plots of land and continue to irrigate even though yields shrink. In the poorest regions where no other employment is available, rural populations turn to woodcutting and charcoal production, which lead to deforestation. This deforestation forces families to spend more time seeking firewood for domestic use, leaving less time for tending fields or animals. Desertification has become a large-scale problem. Arid and semiarid regions, known as drylands, account for one-third of the worlds land area and support a combined population of about 900 million people. Soil degradation reduces crop output and is a major concern economically. About 70 percent of drylands are susceptible to degradation, 50 percent have been degraded to some degree, and 15 percent show extreme degradation where agricultural yields are less than half of their former level. Almost all the areas of extreme degradation are in the African Sahel from Senegal to Sudan, along the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Egypt, and in central and southwestern Asia from China to Syria. Desertification can also have impacts that extend beyond the immediate degraded area. Windborne dust from the Sahel creates havoc with air traffic across western Africa, and sediment eroded from central China damages water control systems far downstream. Many regions are affected indirectly by desertification as they absorb waves of people uprooted by their inability to grow enough food or raise enough livestock. Such people, called environmental refugees, swelled the urban areas of the Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, migrations of environmental refugees may cross national boundaries and contribute to political friction within and between countries. This migration problem has occurred at various times, such as during the drought years from 1968 to 1973 when Mauritanian nomads fled into Senegal. In addition to agricultural productivity losses and increasing poverty, desertification results in significant reductions in carbon storage in soils, contributing to global warming, and loss of biodiversity. It also triggers soil erosion because of the loss of vegetative ground cover exacerbating water erosion and flash floods. These accelerate siltation of rivers and lakes and pollute water reserves.

The key driving force behind this degradation is a nexus of poverty, rapid population growth, and inadequate progress in increasing agricultural productivity, poor rural people in their quest for food and other livelihood needs, pursue land management and cultivation practices that deplete soils of their nutrient and organic matter content and promote erosion; overgraze rangelands, and cut but not replant sufficient trees and bushes for fuel wood and other purposes. Case study of Aral Sea Severe and wide-ranging impacts on the environment, economy, and human population accompanied the drying of the Aral Sea. A region of 400,000 sq km (154,441 sq mi) around the sea, where nearly 4 million people lived in 2004, was officially recognized as an Ecological Disaster Zone. The deltas of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya were severely degraded by desertification (the process of becoming desert), accompanied by simplification of native plant and animal communities due to the extinction of some species. Lakes and wetlands in the delta were reduced by 85 percent. This reduction, coupled with increasing pollution of remaining water bodies (primarily from irrigation runoff containing fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides), caused the number of nesting bird species in the Syr Darya delta to fall from 173 to 38. Irrigated agriculture in the deltas suffered from a limited water supply due to greatly reduced river flow and the increased salinity of available water. Commercial fishing ceased in the early 1980s as native species, unable to survive in the increased salinity, disappeared. Shipping also stopped as the sea retreated many kilometers from the major ports of Aralsk and Mynoq. Mitigation Desertification can be controlled by averting the processes that cause desertification. Desert lands can be reclaimed by adopting appropriate technologies of developing plant covers over the desert lands. Techniques exist for mitigating or reversing the effects of desertification, however there are numerous barriers to their implementation. One of these is that the costs of adopting sustainable agricultural practices sometimes exceed the benefits for individual farmers, even while they are socially and environmentally beneficial. Another issue is a lack of political will, and lack of funding to support land reclamation and anti-desertification programs (Briassoulis, Helen, 2005). Desertification is recognized as a major threat to biodiversity. Some countries have developed Biodiversity Action Plans to counter its effects, particularly in relation to the protection of endangered flora and fauna.

A nationwide campaign has led to conserve local biodiversity, enhance natural beauty and prevent soil erosion. Experts say that a forest cover of 10-15% is required for a country to sustain life naturally, availability of rain, availability of underground water, soil fertility, and clean air and prevention of soil erosion and beauty. Planting of indigenous trees be promoted in forest catchment areas, private farms and public spaces to preserve local biological diversity as promoted by International Center for Research and Agro forestry. Rows of trees can be planted at the margins of deserts as shelter-belts for checking the spread of deserts. The environmental problems are addressed through a systematic approach to the deforestation challenge. Recognizing the need to strengthen civil societys concern for the environment, civic education and advocacy projects are being established to raise public awareness on the need to protect the environment this could include, all stakeholders and development workers be trained through training workshops e.g. organizations undertaking this in Kenya include International Centre for Research and Agro forestry. Most efforts to combat desertification require temporary reductions in economic productivity or increases in investment. Experts commonly recommend decreasing herd sizes, changing plowing practices, planting windbreaks, planting less profitable crops, and allowing each field to lie fallow on a rotating basis. In irrigated agriculture, more expensive and intensive water management is recommended, requiring improved water delivery systems, field preparation, and drainage systems. Increasingly poor populations, however, cannot absorb a reduction in income, cannot usually invest in improvements, and may not have sufficient labor available to implement even simple measures. Perhaps most importantly, national institutions, particularly in Africa, are rarely able to intervene as they do in developed countries. The drought in the Sahel during the late 1960s and early 1970s caused alarm among developed countries. In addition to causing significant loss of life, the drought was viewed as an environmental catastrophe that might have long-term effects on global climate. Thus, the United Nations (UN) convened a Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) in 1977 to raise awareness of the problem, to summarize what was known, and to develop plans of action. The response to this call for action was not extensive. A few national plans of action were completed, but they often addressed only the symptoms of desertification, such as soil erosion.

More importantly, these plans were not integrated in a general program of development that would address the root causes of desertification, such as poverty. Several regional plans were proposed, such as a greenbelt across the Sahel that would hold back the desert. In addition to being misguided sometimes, these projects tended to be too large to be implemented. Perhaps in response to all these factors, there was little international interest in funding these antidesertification projects. Nonetheless, desertification remains an international concern. A new treaty, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was signed in 1994 and enacted in 1996. Improving on the old UNCOD, the UNCCD addresses linkages between poverty and environmental degradation, and focuses more on fostering small-scale grassroots solutions instead of massive international interventions. Thus, rather than attempting to hold back the desert by planting trees across an entire region, the UNCCD tries to improve resource management by working directly with resource managers and their communities. Also, instead of relying exclusively on government agencies, the UNCCD attempts to involve national and international nongovernmental organizations that are already at work in the countryside. Whether the UNCCD brings more results than the UNCOD remains to be seen. The following measures have also been used to combat desertification; reclaiming desertified land for increased productivity though a comprehensive approach. Development of appropriate farming practices suited to the fragile semi-arid region. Refinement of economically viable traditional practices and improving the living conditions and income of farmers in affected villages to lift them out of poverty and afforestation techniques must be undertaken to create wind-blocks and to create the necessary root undergirding to eliminate runoff. Conclusion Desertification is a self- reinforcing process. It means, once the process of desertification starts, the conditions are set for continual deterioration of land. Solutions to these problems require technological improvements and new approaches to reverse land degradation that are firmly anchored in the socio-economic and policy contents of the government.

Since desertification is acknowledged to be a complex phenomenon it requires the expertise of researchers in such disciplines as climatology, soil science, meteorology, hydrology, range science, agronomy, veterinary medicine, as well as geography, political science, economics and anthropology as a part of committed and integrated effort not only to contain it but also to see it being rehabilitated now and in future. Reversal of trends in land degradation requires a holistic approach focusing on three key components. Firstly, technological interventions must address land, water and food- security problems. Secondly, the active involvement of local communities within a strategy that increases their knowledge and organizational capacity is called for. With increased capacity to manage risk and to solve problems, communities can reverse land degradation, improve their livelihoods and become responsible stewards of natural resources. Thirdly, appropriate incentives at the policy and institutional level are required to induce land users to adopt more conservation technologies. References Andrew S. Goudie. Techniques for Desert Reclamation B.A. Sheikh and G.H. Soomro. 2006. Desertification: Causes, Consequences and Remedies. Agri., Agril. Engg., Vet. Sc. 22(1)2006 Barbara Stout. Desertification: Cause and Effect Briassoulis, Helen (2005). Policy integration for complex environmental problems: the example of Mediterranean desertification. Ashgate Publishing. p. 237.ISBN 9780754642435 Charles F. Hutchinson. Microsoft Encarta 2009. 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Ci, Longjun & Yang, Xiaohui (2010). Desertification and Its Control in China. Springer. p. 10. ISBN 9787040257977 Glantz, M.H. (ed.) 1977. Desertification: Environmental Degradation in and around Arid Lands. Boulder, Westview Press. Hare, K. 1977. Connections between climate and desertification, Environmental Conservation, 4(2):82. Land Degradation and Desertification. http://www.ciesin.org/TG/LU/degrad.html Mares, Michael S., ed (1999). "Middle East, deserts of".Encyclopedia of deserts. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 362. ISBN 9780806131467

Mortimore, Michael (1989). Adapting to drought: farmers, famines, and desertification in west Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780521323123. Leighton, M. 1999. Environmental degradation and poverty in Drylands; development and poverty, proceedings of the June 15 and 16, 1999. World Bank Round Table, Pub. World Bank. Rhodes W. Fairbridge. Microsoft Encarta 2009. 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Rozanov, B.G. 1981. Principles of desertification, diagnostics and assessment. In Combating UNCCD (1994), Part I - Article 1 United Nations Secretariat of the Convention to Combat Desertification.http://www.unccd.int U.N Food and Agriculture on desertification. http://www.fao.org/desertification/