Rural Land Degredation

Question 1

What is land degradation?

Answer 1

Land degradation is damage to land that makes it less economically useful and less biologically diverse. Degradation is a worldwide problem. Land can be damaged through human and natural causes.

Question 2

What is desertification?

Answer 2

What is desertification?
• Desertification is the process by which a desert spreads across an area that was previously fertile.
• Roughly 25% of land is affected by desertification; this includes over 1million hectares of Africa and 1.4million hectares in Asia, directly affecting over a billion people.
• This process has devastating effects on people and their livelihoods.

The process of “Desertification” is quite simply land degradation in a semi to arid area, where land turns into desert, thus expanding the area of desert.
When land degradation happens in the world’s drylands, it often creates desert-like conditions.

Question 3

What percentage of the land is degrading and how many people are affected

Answer 3

Globally, 24% of the land is degrading. About 1.5 billion people directly depend on these areas. Nearly 20% of this land is used to grow crops, 20-25% for cattle.

Question 4

What is desertification seen as the result of?

Answer 4

Desertification is seen as the result of a long-term failure to balance human demand for ecosystem services and the amount the ecosystem can supply. Mismanagement and politics are often root causes. Climate change is now adding more complexity.

Question 5

What is the direct causes of Rural land degradation?

Answer 5

Direct drivers of land degradation are mostly climatic or physical, especially low soil moisture, rainfall patterns and evaporation.

Question 6

What is the indirect causes of Rural land degradation?

Answer 6

Indirect drivers are mostly human: the debt crisis, growing poverty, poor people’s lack of access to resources / technology used, global and local market trends, socio-political dynamics and food insecurity. These drive the loss of productive capacity and increase destruction. As the land on which rural communities depend becomes increasingly scarce, competition increases. More pressure on existing land to grow food can lead to growing desertification.

Question 7

Describe the physical cause of desertification?

Answer 7

Climate change

Question 8

Describe how climate change causes desertification in the Saheal?

Answer 8

Over the last few decades, the Sahel has consistently suffered from climate change, receiving less rainfall, higher average temperatures and stronger winds. It is thought that global warming plays a part in this. The burning of fossil fuels is causing the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere to increase, accelerating the greenhouse effect. As a result, global weather patterns are shifting. Areas such as the Sahel and the Australian outback are becoming drier and drier. This causes vegetation to die off therefore there are no roots to hold to soil together. With the strong hot trade winds coming across from the Sahara desert, the dried out valuable top soil is easily blown away. When the ITCZ moves across the Sahel as the South trade winds gain dominance, the heavy bursts of rain can also wash away this top soil (known as surface run off).

Climatic variation is the main direct driver of land degradation. If the climate is unpredictable or there are flash floods this will be detrimental to the landscape.
Drought leads to crop failure, meaning that there is a lower percentage of vegetation cover in the area. This exposes the soil to strong winds and heavy rainfall, leaving no binding mechanism for the dry soil. Fertility is lost and this then impacts hugely on the population of the area.

Question 9

Describe how overcultivation causes desertification in the Sahel?

Answer 9

Over cultivation- Arable farmers have had to increase crop yields as a result of the rapid population growth in the Sahel. This has resulted in less time for land to lie fallow and regenerate, therefore soil becomes exhausted of nutrients and minerals.
As a result of climate change, rains have become less reliable therefore crops are failing more often. Farmers are then forced to use less appropriate areas of land to attempt to grow crops to meet high demands, resulting in accelerated desertification.

Question 10

Describe the human cause of desertification?

Answer 10

1. Increased Urbanisation
2. Overgrazing
3. Over Cultivation
4. Growth of Cash crops
5. Deforestation

Question 11

Describe how OVERGRAZING causes desertification in the Sahel?

Answer 11

Overgrazing- As well as increased crop growth, more cattle have been grazing in the Sahel area. This increases pressure on vegetated areas and water sources where the animals are taken to drink. The grazing, as well as trampling of vegetation by the herds, has resulted in the soils being stripped bare. The rate of infiltration of the soil has also reduced, increasing the amount of surface run off causing rapid soil erosion, often forming gullies. As a result, the deserts will spread quickly.

Question 12

Describe how Deforestation causes desertification in the Sahel?

Answer 12

Deforestation- As a result of rapid population growth in the area, woodland areas have been increasingly used for fuel. Since 1900, 90% of forests from the Ethiopian Highlands have been cleared. Without these trees there are no roots to bind the soil together, protecting the soil from wind and water erosion. This has resulted in most of the population using animal dung and crop residues for fuel for cooking and heating. These materials would normally be used to fertilise the soil, so the soil is further degraded, reducing crop yields and increasing desertification.

Question 13

Describe how urbanisation causes desertification in the Sahel?

Answer 13

Urbanisation- Another effect of the rapid population increase has been the expansion of urban areas as rural depopulation has occurred. Rural to Urban migrations happens as people are striving for a better standard of living; better homes, education, health care etc. Niger’s capital city, Niamey, saw its population increase from 207000 to 1000000 in just 20 years. Smaller settlements have also increasingly developed in rural areas, providing schools and primary healthcare. Settlements such as these create a higher demand for all resources.

Question 14

Describe how the increasing growth of cash crops causes desertification in the Sahel?

Answer 14

Increasing growth of cash crops- Traditional farming techniques in the Sahel has slowly diminished throughout the 20th century and farmers now are growing cash crops such as rice and cotton rather than subsistence crops. Farming in a monoculture fashion has increased soil exhaustion leading to infertile soils. Low tech or inappropriate farming techniques such as flood irrigation from the river Niger has led to the salinisation of soils, leading to accelerated desertification.

Question 15

What are the physical consequences of desertification?

Answer 15

Salinization
Topsoil Lost
Rills and Gullies

Question 16

Describe the consequences of desertification- Rills and gullies

Answer 16

Rills and gullies form due to intense tropical downpours brought by the ITCZ. As a result, overland flow removes top soil and cuts small, deep valleys into the land called gullies (rills are smaller versions). This also occurs where animals trample the area; water cannot infiltrate the soil as a consequence and runs overland.

Question 17

Describe the consequences of desertification- top soil lost

Answer 17

Valuable top soil is also lost by strong winds like the Harmattan (NE Trade wind) which easily blows away loose top soil that is not being held together by vegetation and the moisture plant roots keep in the soil. This often causes sand storms and deposits dust in far off places e.g. UK April 2015.

Question 18

Describe the consequences of desertification- salt accumulation

Answer 18

Salt accumulation (known as salinisation) occurs in the Sahel when inappropriate farming techniques have been used. As the population and the demand for cash crops rises, irrigation increases resulting in a build up of salts in the soil. This can act as a poison to crops, causing them to fail. The reversal of this process is extremely expensive.

Question 19

What are the human consequences of desertification?

Answer 19

• Malnutrition and Starvation
• Migration
• Dependence on Aid
• Standard of living

Question 20

Describe the human consequences of desertification- malnutrition, and starvation.

Answer 20

• Repeated crop failure in the Sahel has led to malnutrition, widespread starvation and death. Sudan’s famine in the 1980’s triggered Band Aid amongst other international aid efforts.
• Malnutrition has also been caused by the increase of cash crop growth, meaning farmers will grow in a monoculture fashion rather than to provide sustenance.

Question 21

Describe the human consequences of desertification- migration?

Answer 21

The degrading farm land in the Sahel coupled with the increasing pressure eon resources from the rising population, has force people to migrate away from their homeland. Traditional faring techniques have been lost and rural areas are experiencing depopulation, especially of the young active male group, leaving an ageing and female dominated demographic.

Question 22

Describe the human consequences of desertification- Dependence on aid?

Answer 22

External support in the form of voluntary and official aid to the Sahel has led to a reliance on short term aid. This can lead to over-dependency on aid.

Question 23

Describe the human consequences of desertification- Standard of Living?

Answer 23

With loss of fertile land capable of farming, the standard of living for people will inevitably reduce. Farmers lose income from cash crops as yields reduce due to soil exhaustion and unreliable rainfall.
Health care and education is paid for in many Sahelian countries. A loss of income can also impact here as schooling can be interrupted for pupils and ill patients can go untreated as a result of not being able to afford the costs.

Question 24

What is the solution to desertification?

Answer 24

•	Afforestation and Dune fixation 
•	Stone Lines
•	Appropriate farming
•	Education
•	Fuel efficiency
A Sahel wide management plan called the Great Green Wall (GGW) is also underway...

Question 25

Solutions to desertification- Afforestation?

Answer 25

• Planting new trees around villages in the Sahel stops shifting sands from moving onto farmland.
• They reduce soil erosion by binding the soil together with roots, acting as a wind break and intercepting rainfall.
• Trees provide shade for locals, animals and crops; protecting them from the harsh sun and adding nutrients to the farmland in the form of hummus.
• The trees may also provide products or food for locals to eat or sell
such as fruit, nuts, honey, gum.
• It creates more fire wood and building materials to meet ever increasing demands.

• In the Sahel, the Kad tree, a variety of Acacia, has been used as; it retains its leaves in the dry season, so provides shade all year round, it fixes nitrogen in the soil thus increasing fertility, its seeds and pods provide a rich source of protein for cattle.

Question 26

Solutions to desertification- Dune fixation?

Answer 26

• Grasses have also been planted to reduce soil erosion. Vetiver has been used to stabilise sand dunes in Mauritania. They can also be used to thatch houses.

Question 27

Solutions to desertification- Stone Lines?

Answer 27

Stone lines (also known as diguettes) have been built along contours of sloping farm land to reduce soil erosion through overland flow. These lines of stones and boulders also encourage soil build up so crops will grow better in the deeper, more fertile soils.• This method of reducing soil erosion is effective as it is a cheap way of reducing overland flow.
• Stones are often readily available.
• These schemes are often completed as part of a community cooperative at low costs.
• In Burkina Faso, crop yields have increased by up to 50% thanks to support from Oxfam and the Tear Fund.

Question 28

Solutions to desertification- Appropriate farming?

Answer 28

• Farm land used for livestock has suffered from vegetation loss due to trampling. Fencing off areas and rotating the grazing areas allows grasses to re-establish themselves.
• Fencing however is expensive and it can be difficult to manage the rotation of livestock over such large areas.
• Farmers have also reduced the size of their herds in order to improve the quality of their products. This decreases grazing and trampling pressures on the land.
• This has not been as effective as other solutions as culturally the bigger the herd the higher the status of the family, therefore herders may be resistant to change.
• To decrease soil erosion, farmers have also created terraces to trap water, reducing over land flow. Over 200,000 kms of terraces have been created in Ethiopia for example in Northern Tigray.
• Farmers have also learned to irrigate more efficiently. The Gezira scheme in Sudan irrigates land from the Blue Nile, allowing for two harvests a year.
• The Gezira scheme brings water to dry areas of Sudan via canals to irrigate large areas of land used for growing cotton for exporting and wheat and sorghum to feed the population.
• As a result of the Gezira scheme, over 150,000 people are employed and the standard of living is improving in the area.
• The drawback of this scheme is that large scale damming and irrigation is extremely expensive. It also has only helped one small region of the country; Sudan is still suffering from famine.
• Creating the reservoirs also flooded local farmland and many people lost their homes.

Question 29

Solutions to desertification- Education?

Answer 29

• Teaching local farmers about the causes and consequences of land degradation can help to change attitudes and practice.
• Helping people to set up appropriate small scale irrigation systems like drip irrigation will help soil fertility but again is very expensive

Question 30

Solutions to desertification- Fuel ?

Answer 30

• The rising population in the Sahel has caused widespread deforestation as people cut down trees for firewood. The jiko stove has been developed as it is cheap to buy and uses half the amount of fuel than an open fire.
• This has been particularly effective in areas where alternative fuels, like kerosene, are far too expensive for locals to purchase.

Question 31

Solutions to desertification- Great Green wall in saheal?

Answer 31

The Great Green Wall or Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative is a planned project to plant a wall of trees across the southern edge of the Sahara as a means to prevent desertification. It was developed by the African Union to address the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of rural land degradation and desertification in the Sahel region.