The terms desertification refers to degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. It does not imply loss of land to desert or through sand-dune movement.
Land degradation occurs everywhere, but is known as desertification when it occurs in the dryland ecosystems, i.e. land areas where the mean annual precipitation is less than two thirds of potential evapotranspiration (PET = potential evaporation from soil plus transpiration by plants), excluding polar regions and some high mountain areas which meet this criterion but have completely different ecological characteristics.
They cover over one-third of the world‘s land area and are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation and inappropriate land use. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing and improper irrigation practices can all play a complex role in undermining the productivity of the land. The drivers can be climatic as well, such as low soil moisture, changing rainfall patterns and high evaporation.
However, majority of them are human-related, and include poverty, technology, global and local market trends and socio-political dynamics. It is vital to mention that poverty is both a cause and consequence of land degradation.
Other major side-effects of include: diminished food production, soil infertility and a decreased natural resilience of the land; increase in downstream flooding, reduction in water quality, sedimentation in rivers and lakes, and silting of reservoirs and navigation channels; aggravated health problems due to wind-blown dust, including eye infections, respiratory illnesses, allergies, and mental stress; loss of livelihoods forcing affected people to migrate.
GLOBAL DESERTIFICATION VULNERABILITY MAP, 1998
Drylands take up 41.3 per cent of the land surface, out of which 6.6 per cent consists of deserts and 34.6 per cent is drylands (un.org). They are major contributors to the world’s breadbasket, considering that one in every three crops under cultivation today has its origins in the drylands.
They are valuable indigenous food vaults as the wild ancestors and relatives of these plants still grow there. They support 50 per cent of the world’s livestock, are wildlife habitats and account for nearly half of all cultivated systems. The affected people include many of the world’s poorest, most marginalized and politically weak citizens.The fine line between drylands and deserts once crossed cannot be reversed. Some little-known facts about drylands:-
Value of Drylands for Livelihoods
- 5 billion people live in the world’s deserts and drylands.
- 90 per cent of this population is in developing countries.
- 50 per cent of world’s livestock is supported by rangelands.
- 46 per cent of global carbon is stored in drylands.
- 44 per cent of all cultivated land is in drylands.
- 30 per cent of all cultivated plants came from drylands.
- They harbour some of the world’s most valuable and rarest biodiversity.
Degradation
- 24 per cent of the land, globally, is degrading.
- 20-25 per cent of degrading land is rangeland.
- 20 per cent of degrading land is cropland.
- 5 billion people in the world depend on degrading land.
Desertification and Land Degradation in India
The latest Atlas of the Space Applications Centre (SAC, ISRO, published in 2016) reveals that 96.40 million hectare area (mha) of the country is undergoing land degradation i.e., 29.32 per cent of the Total Geographic Area (TGA) of the country during 2011-13, while during 2003-05 it was 94.53 mha (28.76 per cent of the TGA).
Around 24% of desertification/land degradation (out of total TGA) is contributed by the states of – Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana in descending order.
All other remaining states contribute less than 1 per cent (each).
But if seen from a different angle, states such as Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Goa show more than 50 per cent area under desertification/land degradation, whereas in Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Arunachal Pradesh, it is less than 10 per cent.
DESERTIFICATION / LAND DEGRADATION STATUS MAP OF INDIA – 2011-2013
In spite of the problems at present, drylands have a great potential for development, only if handled with wise management at the global, national and local levels. A land left impoverished, will sooner or later, impoverish its inhabitants and vice versa. Sustainable land management practices can equip land users to respond to changing market demand with adapted and traditional technologies not only to generate income, but also to improve livelihoods and protect ecosystems.
These are the main thoughts that went into declaring 2010-2020 as the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification. Infact, these trends can be reversed. To preserve soil productivity, sustainable long-term practices that combine both traditional as well as modern technology need to be applied. Another measure is to decrease the dependence on these lands by creating jobs in other sectors, improve land management, reforestation, controlling erosion, using non-wood sources of energy, zero-tillage farming etc.
The World Day to Combat Desertification and Droughtis observed every year on the 17th of June to create public awareness on the issue. This year, the day is being celebrated at Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.
The theme for 2017 is “Land degradation and migration”. It examines the important link between land degradation and migration. Environmental degradation, food insecurity and poverty are causes of national and international migration. There is a need to look at ways by which local communities attempt to solve the present multi-fold development challenges through sustainable land management practices. The aim of this day is to celebrate land’s important role in producing food and generating local employment, as well as to show how sensible human involvement can help in adding sustainability, stability and security of drylands that are required for a strong future, that is why the slogan for the year is “Our land. Our home. Our Future.”
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.