Unscientific
cultivation practices
* Extensive cropping e.g. mono cropping - * Excessive
use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides
* Shifting cultivation without adequate period of recovery
Conversion of land for other uses
* Prime forestland to non-forest land - * Agricultural
land for other corporate uses * industrial and mining
activities
Deforestation
* forest land clearances for agriculture and industrial
purpose - * unsustainable forest management practices
- * overgrazing, logging and illegal felling - * forest
fires - * Unsustainable water management - * Poor and
inefficient irrigation practices - * Over extraction
of groundwater resulting in depletion of water level
Global climate change causing recurrent drought and
failure of monsoons.
Thus human activities can therefore, accelerate desertification
and aggravate it’s negative consequences on the
people.
The Many Consequences of Desertification
Desertification impairs the ability of land to support
life. It is particularly devastating because of its
self-reinforcing nature.
Once desertification begins it progresses by feeding
on itself. It aggravates many other environmental problems.
And despite control measures that have been taken to
fight desertification in some countries, it continues
to spread at an alarming and accelerating pace.
Some direct effects of Desertification are:
Deterioration of natural resources, adversely affecting
socio-economic condition and livelihood support systems
Reduction of irrigation capacity
Erosion of food security base of human beings and livestock
Scarcity of drinking water
Reduction in the health and nutrition levels of the
population
Reduction in the availability of biomass for fuel
Loss of biodiversity
Impoverishment, indebtedness and distress sale of assets
of production.
Desertification reduces land’s resilience
to natural disasters
When land is degraded, the resilience of soil, vegetation,
freshwater supplies is highly weakened
Soil becomes less productive
Exposed and eroded topsoil can be blown away by the
wind. The soil’s physical structure and bio-chemical
composition can change for the worse
Vegetations gets damaged
Loss of vegetation cover may result in depletion / extinction
of edible plant species.
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