{"id":186414,"date":"2022-05-25T20:42:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T15:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=186414"},"modified":"2022-05-25T20:42:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T15:12:39","slug":"combating-desertification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/combating-desertification\/","title":{"rendered":"Combating desertification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: The 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was recently held at Abidjan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It called upon nations to invest in restoring degraded land for future prosperity, and<\/span> urged the 196 participating nations to reclaim 1 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the global situation wrt land degradation?<\/h5>\n

Globally, about 40% of the land, supporting about half of humanity, is facing the threat of desertification. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the business as usual scenario, an additional area equivalent of the size of South America, might get degraded by 2050, warn the papers presented at the COP15.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why restoring of the degraded land is esp relevant for India?<\/h5>\n

India is a land-stressed country<\/strong>, where close to 30% of the land falls in the degraded category. <\/span><\/p>\n

More worrying, the process of decline in the quality of land is still ongoing<\/strong> despite the government\u2019s resolve to achieve \u201cland degradation neutrality\u201d (zero addition to degraded land) by 2030. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the data collected by the Indian Space Research Organisation through satellite imagery, the extent of deteriorated land has risen<\/strong> from 94.53 million hectares (mha) in 2003 to 97.85 mha in 2018-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Energy and Resources Institute had assessed the losses due to decline in land productivity<\/strong> as worth around Rs 3.17 trillion in 2014-15, amounting to about 2.5% of GDP in that year. About 82% of these losses were attributed to the deterioration in the quality of land under agriculture, forests, and pastures, and the remaining to the changes in the land-use pattern \u2014 diverting land to less productive use. <\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/strong> This study, significantly, had also underscored the need to expedite implementing land improvement projects as the cost of land reclamation could rise above the potential economic gains by 2030.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the factors behind land degradation?<\/h5>\n

Among the major factors responsible for land degradation, the most significant ones are –<\/span><\/p>\n

– soil salinity <\/strong>and water-logging<\/strong> in agricultural fields due to flawed agronomic practices, and <\/span><\/p>\n

– water <\/strong>and wind erosion<\/strong> in the areas that have lost their vegetative cover. <\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/strong> In the Northeast, a hilly region, the continuation of the practice of shifting cultivation<\/strong>, also known as slash-and-burn agriculture or jhum, is the main cause of land degradation. Under this system, the farmers clear the forested land, cultivate it for a few years, and then move to another spot, leaving the old patch barren<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Way forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n

India is fortunate to have time-tested technologies capable of rejuvenating problematic lands. <\/span><\/p>\n