India’s Struggle to Combat Desertification

India’s Struggle to Combat Desertification

 (By Shubhangi Paliwal ) 

Image By:-Goutham Sagar

Desertification is defined as “land degradation” in United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in sub-humid regions, arid, semi-arid resulting from various factors including human activities and climatic changes. 

Executive Secretary of the UNCCD said, 99.7 percent of the food we eat comes from land, the question arises, how we continue to feed the future population of 10 billion without further depleting our precious resources? 

A land area is declared degraded when the life-supporting property is lost. In India agriculture supports the livelihood of over 70 core people. Land degradation and food security are a matter of national importance now because 19 core people are undernourished. Extreme weather events and degrading lands in India have affects millions of people and biodiversity. 

Major factors leading to land desertification, deforestation, overgrazing of livestock, over-cultivation of crops, and inappropriate irrigation and also includes natural fluctuations in climate and global warming as a result of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. 

Climate change can cause wildfires and speed up the decomposition of organic carbon in soils, less able to keep water and nutrients. 

 

According to the state of India's environment 2017, nearly 30%of India is degraded or facing degradation. 

Degraded land loses its capacity to absorbs carbon dioxide (co2), greenhouse gas (GHG) that is the biggest reason for worsening global warming. 

Major factors driving desertification in the country, according to the report, are water erosion (soil erosion caused by water), vegetation degradation, and wind erosion. 

In 2019, India hosted the global conference of countries that are party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Nearly one-third of India is facing degradation India has a series of programs to desertification problems and has committed to restoring 21 million hectares of land by 2030. 

 

Actions needed to prevent desertification? 

Prevention is a lot more cost-effective than rehabilitation, and we need to take this matter in policy decisions. People in drylands have a lower quality of life than people in other areas. 

 

What efforts required 

Protecting drylands when desertification is just beginning or ongoing. We need a change in the attitude of government and people and improving methods of agriculture more sustainably. 

 

Actions constitute:- 

1. Integrating land and water management to protects soils from erosion and salinization. 

2. Integrating the use of gazing and farming in favorable conditions allowing the nutrients to recycle. 

3. Protection of vegetative cover 

4. Turning to alternative livelihood that does not depend on traditional land uses. 

 

Actions that can reverse land degradation 

Reversing means to restore the ecosystem services that are lost by desertification. Two approaches are there:-Rehabilitation and restoration 

Restoration aims to re-establish the previous ecosystem state of the land, rehabilitation repair specific parts of the system to regain ecosystem productivity. 

These processes require policies and technologies and the involvement of local communities. The success of rehabilitation depends on the available human resources, funds, and infrastructure. When all the conditions are satisfied it leads to the successful rehabilitation of ecosystem services and reduces poverty. 

 

Schemes launched by the government 

1. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), 

2. Soil Health Card Scheme, 

3. Soil Health Management Scheme 

4. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna (PKSY), 

5. Per Drop More Crop. 

 

The UNCCD COP 14 completed on 13 September 2019, after ten days of meetings, 11 high-level, 30 committees, and over 170 stakeholder meetings, 44 exhibitions, and 126 side events. The Conference affirmed the Delhi Declaration in which parties expressed commitment for a range of concerns, including gender and health, ecosystem restoration, taking action on climate change, Peace Forest Initiative, private sector engagement, and recovery of 26 million hectares of depraved land in India. 

 After COP14, UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw shared these messages: 

1. Land restoration is the most economical solution to climate change and biodiversity loss 

2. Business contribution to environment protection 

3. Climate change needs to be addressed to avoid severe droughts & floods 

4. To put people first is to ensure gender balance, engage youth, guarded land right 

As a citizen, we need to take actions by planting a tree on every weekend for the forthcoming generation. 

A man does not plant a tree for himself he plants it for offspring.

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The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.