One of the causes of degradations is that population pressure is forcing farmers to cultivate increasingly marginal land. Droughts, Climatic Changes Occasional droughts due to seasonal or inter-year variations in rainfall and long-term droughts covering wide areas are both caused or aggravated by the influence of man on the environment the reduction in vegetation cover, changes in the local climate, the greenhouse effect, etc. These plants were not located along riverbeds or any other particularly favourable spot that might have given them exceptionally good access to rainwater. The picture is from Dalli, ca. While climate change and desertification can often go hand in hand, each one able to exacerbate the other, the role these two factors play in migration is starting to gain increasing prominence in research circles.
The colonial administration wanted to make Niger profitable and saw peanut cultivation for export as a means of doing this. In countries with limited cultivable land and high population-growth rates - such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Burundi, and Rwanda - fallow periods are no longer sufficient to allow soil fertility to be restored, so that crop yields have fallen. The result has been widespread malnutrition, with an estimated 1. The rural poor, the overwhelming majority of Africa's citizens, destroy their own environment, not out of ignorance, but simply to survive. Local institutions can contribute to preventing by allowing land users to manage and use more effectively through enhanced access to productive land, capital, labor, and technology. Even with high inputs, Kenya's lands can support only 51 million people a total that will be passed by 2010. Francis Historically, farmers and herdsmen around the Sahel have been known to have clashes frequently, even though not as intense as the present.
The people develop a survival strategy to meet their most urgent requirements, and this, in turn, helps to worsen desertification. When herders move around with their herds, they tend to walk into farms and destroy crops causing clashes with the farmers. Archaeological records suggest that Africa's arid areas have been getting progressively drier over the past 5 000 years What is new is the coincidence of drought with the increasing pressures put on fragile arid and semi-arid lands by mounting numbers of people and livestock. In the past, there has also been an anti-poor bias in agricultural policy across much of the region, notably through over-taxation of crops; inadequate spending on market infrastructure for small-holder producers; insufficient investment in research on local food staples; and an undue concentration on rainfed, rather than irrigated agriculture. Very few steps have been made to try to lower the deforestation rates and to stop. Rehabilitation seeks to repair damaged or blocked parts or sectors of ecosystem functions, with the primary goal of regaining ecosystem. Any solution to the problem of deforestation in Nigeria must be an approach that incorporates and aggressively targets all aspects that are related to the problem.
The result of this is the drop in crop yields by 20 percent. Not only is Africa geologically old and afflicted with a harsh climate, but also large parts of the continent have been occupied by human beings much longer than in other continents. In the Sahel slashing and burning of natural forest and bushland in order to clear land for annual agriculture is the main cause of this destruction. By the end of this century and in spite of the national efforts to combat desertification and mitigate the effect of drought, desertification is still one of the major environmental challenges in Nigeria especially Northern Nigeria. Effects of Desertification in Nigeria 1. The belt of land running through the West African Sahel region and the Sudan to northeast Ethiopia and Kenya is particularly vulnerable. Like the benefits of increased education or improved governance, the protection, restoration, and enhancement of ecosystem services tend to have multiple benefits C2.
Sand dunes move during violent storms and would be a huge threat if they reached farmers' fields. This is worsened by over-grazing, over-exploitation and over-cultivation of marginal lands, and deforestation. The language originated in the Yoruba people, they believed to be descendants of Oduduwa, the son of a powerful god called Oludumare. A report published in the Journal of Ecology and the Natural Environment says that more than of the Nigeria's land is affected. Research Cyber Team hopes this article was helpful.
Climatic changes are both a cause and consequence of desertification. Failures of resource management policies are worsened by over-grazing, over-exploitation of water and land resources, over-cultivation of marginal lands, and deforestation. As populations climbs far beyond the natural equilibrium we start seeing our ecosystem blow away. However, removing international trade barriers without regulation at national level may also encourage agricultural practices. However, these precious and crucial areas are at a crossroad, endangered and threatened by the devastating process of desertification.
They then retain their dignity as Westerners are not revegetating their land for them but at the same time Eden supports their work by researching species that they will use. The provision of that aid is vital to the region's food security, and for local efforts at post-drought and post-conflict reconstruction. About half of the country's highland area is significantly eroded, reducing yields by between 2 per cent and 3 per cent a year. Some success stories have been observed; for example, farmers in the Machakos Kenya restored lands. This can drive down prices on the international market, and have often undermined the livelihoods of many food producers in poorer countries. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State to combat climatic changes while reforestation is the re-establishment of forest cover, either naturally by natural seeding, coppice, or root suckers or artificially by direct seeding or planting. Experts estimate that the affected 11 states namely: Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara are under intense pressure from the attack of climate change.
In northern and eastern Kenya, we saw the drought of 1992 decimate the livestock herds of pastoral communities, forcing herders to sell cheaply to local traders. Lastly, desertification leads to an accelerated and often unbridled exploitation of underground fossil water reserves and their gradual depletion. Population pressure, however, has led to the extension of cultivated lands in. The combination of extremely high deforestation rates, increased temperatures and decreasing rainfall are all contributing to the desertification of the country. Peanut exports from the Zinder region rose from 4,500 metric tons in 1928, to 78,900 metric tons in 1970. Projects have tried to revegetate the region themselves but it is too vast. Local villagers recently grew millet in one such area but then abandoned the land leaving it totally bare because it was too far north for sustainable millet production.
As the vegetation has been removed or reduced, the wind has also winnowed out the small amount of silt that the soil contains, reducing its ability to retain moisture. In the and zones, conditions equally favor pastoral and cropping. Urban growth, when undertaken with adequate planning and provision of , infrastructure, and facilities, can be a major factor in relieving pressures that cause desertification in drylands. For your custom-made paper, report, or article; kindly call 0703 022 8325. This region lies within arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas.