What causes desertification? Over cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, slash and burn, climate change. Climate gets hotter, less rainfall, less water supply, less vegetation grows, soil becomes bare and land is infertile so the land becomes a desert.

Desertification is a process of continuous, gradual ecosystem degradation, during which plants and animals, and geological resources such as water and soil, are stressed beyond their ability to adjust to changing conditions.

Poverty-related agricultural practices are a major contributor to desertification. Continuous cultivation without adding supplements, overgrazing, lack of soil and water conservation structures, and indiscriminate bushfires aggravate the process of desertification.

Desertification: the process of fertile land transforming into desert typically as a result of deforestation and dought, improper agricultural practices.

Desertification refers to the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by climatic variations and human activities. Desertification occurs as a result of a long-term failure to balance human demand for ecosystem services and the amount the ecosystem can supply.

The United Nations’ official definition says desertification is land degradation in typically dry areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. Scientists are beginning to say that desertification is a reduction in the productivity of the land that is not reversible.

Preventive actions include:

1. Integrating land and water management to protect soils from erosion, salinization, and other forms of degradation.
2. Protecting the vegetative cover, which can be a major instrument for soil conservation against wind and water erosion.

Desertification is the expansion of desert lands into previously non-desert areas. The process occurs due to both natural and human causes. – Natural causes: a) Climate: Arid and Semi-arid environments, drought. b) High topographic gradient and active regional geodynamic.

The main causes for desertification are overcultivation of poor soils, over grazing by animals, excessive cutting of fuelwood and inappropriate irrigation practises resulting in salinization. Among them overgrazing is the most important factor as it causes maximum effect.

The types of erosion are classified according to the factors by which the erosion processes are caused. Water and wind are the most common and most important causative factors and accordingly, water erosion and wind erosion are considered as the two basic erosion types.

Running water is the leading cause of soil erosion, because water is abundant and has a lot of power. Wind is also a leading cause of soil erosion because wind can pick up soil and blow it far away. Activities that remove vegetation, disturb the ground, or allow the ground to dry are activities that increase erosion.