Agriculture A Vital Part Of The Solution To Land Degradation

The world’s drylands are becoming hotter and drier. Expanding commercial agriculture and investing in sustainable land management practices are two ways in which governments can mitigate this form of land degradation, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

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Desertification is land degradation in drylands due to human activities and, of course, climate change. It is not limited to irreversible forms of land degradation, nor is it to be equated with desert expansion; it covers all forms of degradation that occur in drylands.

Drylands cover about 46,2% of the globe’s total land area and are home to three billion people. More than 20% of global plant biodiversity centres are located within drylands. Plant species within these areas are characterised by high genetic diversity.

From 1961 to 2013, the annual area of drylands in drought increased, on average, by slightly more than 1% a year. Desertification hotspots, identified by a decline in vegetation between the 1980s and 2000s, extended to about 9,2% of drylands, affecting about 500 million people, in 2015.

The dryland population vulnerable to water stress, drought intensity and habitat degradation is projected to reach 178 million people by 2050 at 1,5°C global warming, 220 million at 2°C warming and 277 million at 3°C warming. Asia and Africa are forecast to have the highest number vulnerable to increased desertification.

Desertification has already led to reduced crop and livestock productivity, as well as the loss of biodiversity due to increasing aridity. On the steppe land of southwestern Algeria, for example, species richness decreased from 234 species in 1978 to 95 in 2011 after long periods of drought and human-driven degradation.