This is a presentation about desertification, the causes of desertification and how to control desertification.

1. Desertification

2. The causes of desertification:
Deforestation is caused mainly for these two factors:
• Human activities and
• Drought
• Human Activities:
Human activities are partly responsible for
the growth of deserts in the semi- arid areas. With a growing
population, there is an increasing demand for more food. As a
result more live stock is reared and more crops are cultivated .All
these activities- overgrazing, over cultivation and deforestation
and cause soil erosion. When soil is eroded, the damaged land
becomes a desert.
•

3. Overgrazing:
Overgrazing refers to the rearing
of too much livestock in a
limited pasture. When too many
cattle graze in an area, over
time, they can eat up all the
grass and shrubs. The pounding
and trampling of the animals’
hooves can also kill the grass.
Once the vegetation cover
disappears, the soil is exposed.
Exposed soil is easily blown away
by wind or washed away by
occasional rain, causing the land
to become barren.

4. Over cultivation:
Over cultivation refers to the
continuous growing of crops on the
same piece of land year after year
without replacing soil nutrients. As
people over cultivate the land, the
fields are no longer left to lay
fallow, which means to let the
cultivated land to rest so that the
soil can regain its fertility. If the
soil gets no rest from constant
ploughing and growing of crops and
it gradually loses its nutrients.
If the soil
nutrients are not replaced, the land
becomes infertile and crop yields fall
and crops cannot be grown on the
infertile soil.

5. Deforestation :
The act or result of cutting
down or burning all the trees
in an area is known as
deforestation. As the
population is increasing, people
cut more trees for fuel and
wood. As the trees are being
cut down, the vegetation
cover is being cleared away.
When there is no vegetation
covers, the soil is loose and
winds can carry the soil away.

6. Drought:
The term “drought’’ means a
long period of time with little
or no rainfall. In drought-prone
areas the soil is already
exposed and its gets blown up
the wind, or the occasional
rain. Drought reduces
vegetative cover and the soil is
exposed. As a result, nothing
can be grown in the barren
land.

7. How desertification can be
controlled?
The ways to control desertification are
crop rotation, controlled grazing and
wind brakes.

8. Crop Rotation:
Crop rotation is the
cultivation of different crops
in a specified order on the
same fields, in gap to a one-
crop system or to random
crop sequences. It helps in
reducing soil erosion and
increases soil fertility. The
plant absorbs the nutrients
from the soil. The farmer
then, plants a plant which
replaces the soil nutrient.

9. Controlled Grazing
It means to allow grazing
animals in an area for a
certain period of time before
removal of the animals and
allowing rest and recovery of
the vegetation. When the
cattle finish eating the grass
in field 1 it is moved to
another field and allowing field
1 to rest, so that the soil
can regain its fertility.

10. Wind brakes:
The process by which
people plant trees in a line
to protect the soil from
soil erosion is called
windbreak. These trees are
planted in a row so that
the force of the wind is
not strong and it protects
the soil from soil erosion.

11. Thank You!