Desertification What is desertification? This might help. (Just choose the desertification video clip) Or this!

Read “Desertification”

Where is this happening?

Let’s look at Africa specifically. Notice the area at most risk is the area known as the Sahel.

The Sahel is south of the Sahara desert and almost covers as much land as the contiguous United States.

Notice the stark difference between the encroaching desert and the forest areas. Forest areas are represented by green, red, blue, and white on this map. Arid areas are tan, brown and orange.

What Causes Desertification? Overgrazing / Poor Grazing Management Leads to compaction of the soil. Destroys existing plant matter. Does not allow the fragile eco-system enough time to recover.

What Causes Desertification? Destruction of Vegetation. Villagers cut down trees to use as fuel wood. Because inhabitants longer living a nomadic lifestyle their livestock destroys plants in a localized areas. Building permanent water sources has caused the end of the nomadic lifestyle.

One cause for deforestation influences others to make the amount of land affected spread like a disease.

What Causes Desertification? Cultivation of Marginal Lands and Incorrect Irrigation Practices. Water does not sink into the soil if there is no top soil to sink into! Marginal lands are lands with poor soil and climates not good for growing crops. Marginal land requires much more water in order to grow the same amount of crops elsewhere.

With a fast growing population more and more land is being used to grow crops to feed the people. Planting the same crops year after year depletes the soil of nutrients.

What is Millet? Millet is one of the oldest foods known to humans and possibly the first cereal grain to be used for domestic purposes. It is mentioned in the Bible, and was used during those times to make bread. Millet has been used in Africa and India as a staple food for thousands of years and it was grown as early as 2700 BC in China where it was the prevalent grain before rice became the dominant staple. It is documented that the plant was also grown by the lake dwellers of Switzerland during the Stone Age. Today millet ranks as the sixth most important grain in the world, sustains 1/3 of the world’s population and is a significant part of the diet in northern China, Japan, Manchuria and various areas of the former Soviet Union, Africa, India, and Egypt. Millet is a major crop in many of these countries, particularly Africa and the Indian subcontinent where the crop covers almost 100 million acres, and thrives in the hot dry climates that are not conducive to growing other grains such as wheat and rice.

What is Millet? Millet was introduced to the U.S. in 1875, was grown and consumed by the early colonists like corn, then fell into obscurity. At the present time the grain is widely known in the U.S. and other Western countries mainly as bird and cattle feed. Only in recent years has it begun to make a comeback and is now becoming a more commonly consumed grain in the Western part of the world. The plant is now grown in the U.S. on 200,000 acres in Colorado, North Dakota, and Nebraska, but much of the crop is still used for livestock, poultry, and bird feed. It is remarkable that despite the grain being an ancient food, research on millet and its food value is in its infancy and its potential vastly untapped.

National Geographic Article Read “Soil” National Geographic Article

All have met with poor results or even added to the problem! What can be done? Governments and environmental groups have spent billions trying to prevent desertification. Plant non-native species. Open government lands to farming. Drill permanent wells. All have met with poor results or even added to the problem!

What can be done? The best solutions are often the easiest as well as the cheapest. zai cordons pierreux hedges mulching windscreens – natural and man made trees or cloth letting livestock roam larger patterns scientific farming techniques

Herds were moved instead of fenced. The Results Herds were moved instead of fenced. September 2004 June 2004

The Results cordons pierreux

The Results Hedges and Windscreens - natural

The Results zai – filled with a sapling