EFFECTS OF DESERTIFICATION

• SOIL INFERTILITY LEADING TO FARMING FAILURE –

The economic activity of agriculture will become unsustainable and will lead to further issues like Droughts, Food Scarcity, Poverty, Unregulated Urbanization etc.

HUNGER

 Without farms in these areas, the food that those farms produce will become much scarcer, and the people who live in those local areas will be a lot more likely to try and deal with hunger problems. Animals will also go hungry, which will cause even more of a food shortage.

FLOODING:

Without the plant life in an area, flooding is a lot more eminent. Not all deserts are dry; those that are wet could experience a lot of flooding because there is nothing to stop the water from gathering and going all over the place. Flooding can also negatively affect the water supply, which we will discuss next.

POOR WATER QUALITY

 If an area becomes a desert, the water quality is going to become a lot worse than it would have been otherwise. This is because the plant life plays a significant role in keeping the water clean and clear; without its presence, it becomes a lot more difficult for you to be able to do that.

OVER POPULATION:

When areas start to become desert, animals and people will go to other areas where they can actually thrive. This causes crowding and overpopulation, which will, in the long run, end up continuing the cycle of desertification that started this whole thing anyway.

POVERTY

• All of the issues that we’ve talked about above (related to the problem of desertification) can lead to poverty if it is not kept in check. Without food and water, it becomes harder for people to thrive, and they take a lot of time to try and get the things that they need.

SOLUTIONS TO DESERTIFICATION

The struggle against desertification can occur at several levels. Since regional variations in climate are the main causes of the loss of dry land productivity, it is important to understand the influence of global warming in specific dry land regions.

According to some models of climate change, many grasslands in western North America, for example, are predicted to be at greater risk of drought due to projected increases in summer temperatures and changes to existing rainfall patterns.

Many authorities argue that since desertification and global warming are so closely related, one of the main solutions to the former may be the implementation of effective economic policies (such as carbon trading) and technical measures (such as carbon sequestration) that reduce the production of greenhouse gases.

At local scales, however, desertification is often the result of unsustainable land and soil management. To maintain the biological productivity of the land, soil conservation is often the priority.

A number of innovative solutions have been devised that range from relatively simple changes in how people grow crops to labour-intensive landscape engineering projects. Some of the techniques that may help ameliorate the consequences of desertification in Irrigated Croplands, Rain-Fed Croplands, Grazing Lands, And Dry Woodlands include:

1. Salt traps, which involve the creation of so-called void layers of gravel and sandat certain depths in the soil. Salt traps prevent salts from reaching the surface of the soil and also help to inhibit water loss.
2. Irrigation improvements, which can inhibit water loss from evaporation and prevent salt accumulation. This technique involves changes in the design of irrigation systems to prevent water from pooling or evaporating easily from the soil.
3. Cover crops, which prevent soil erosion from wind and water. They can also reduce the local effects of drought. On larger scales, plant cover can help maintain normal rainfall patterns. Cover crops may be perennials or fast-growing annuals.
4. CROP ROTATION, which involves the alternation of different crops on the same plot of land over different growing seasons. This technique can help maintain the productivity of the soil by replenishing critical nutrients removed during harvesting.
5. ROTATIONAL GRAZING, which is the process of limiting the grazing pressure of livestock in a given area. Livestock are frequently moved to new grazing areas before they cause permanent damage to the plants and soil of any one area.
6. TERRACING, which involves the creation of multiple levels of flat ground that appear as long steps cut into hillsides. The technique slows the pace of runoff, which reduces soil erosion and retards overall water loss.
7. CONTOUR BUNDING (or contour bundling), which involves the placement of lines of stones along the natural rises of a landscape, and contour farming. These techniques help to capture and hold rainfall before it can become runoff. They also inhibit wind erosion by keeping the soil heavy and moist.
8. WINDBREAKS : which involve the establishment of lines of fast-growing trees planted at right angles to the prevailing surface winds. They are primarily used to slow wind-driven soil erosion but may be used to inhibit the encroachment of sand dunes.
9. DUNE STABILIZATION :which involves the conservation of the plant community living along the sides of dunes. The upper parts of plants help protect the soil from surface winds, whereas the root network below keeps the soil together.
10. Charcoal conversion improvements, which include the use of steel or mud kilns or high-pressure compacting equipment to press the wood and other plant residues into briquettes. Conversion improvements retain a greater fraction of the heating potential of fuel wood.