Read at : Google Alert – desertification
Averting desertification
Prof Dr Ahmad Saeed Bhatti, Prof Dr Shahid Mahboob Rana & Ayesha Saeed
The origin of the first towns, early empires, and powerful nations in the world can all be traced to the use of soil for agriculture and, according to former US President and member of the New York Academy of Sciences, late Thomas Jefferson: “Civilisation itself rests upon the soil.” The enormity of this statement can be better understood through the words of R. Neil Sampson, an agricultural expert, who said: “We stand, in most places on earth, only six inches from desolation, for that is the thickness of the topsoil level upon which the entire life of the planet depends.”
Although food production, extraction of natural resources, industrial activity and pollution affect the environment, population alone threatens to override all others in their effect on the various components of environment, especially the soil. The Malthusian growth in population is fast depleting natural resources, while spurring on the process of industrialisation. As a result, food and environmental quality is decreasing at a rate that warrants attention, as do other problems pertaining to the environment such as conservation of soil and water, use of sustainable production methods, alternative foods, and eating within the lower tier of the food pyramid. Of the world’s population of over 6.4 billion, some 80 percent inhabit developing countries, and suffer from scarcity of food, according to the National Space Science and Technology Centre, USA.
For food sufficiency, therefore, a multi-pronged approach, comprising population control and measures to conserve water and soil, must be used.
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