More than one third of Africa, including Zimbabwe, is under threat of desertification (Google / ZBC Online)

Read at :

https://www.facebook.com/zimbabwebroadcastingcorporation/posts/349251965202140

ZBC News Online

Africa under threat of desertification:

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management says if desertification remains unchecked in the next 10 years, thousands of people will be at risk of displacement while some will be living in areas of high water stress.

Speaking at a media briefing to mark the World Day to Combat Desertification, Environment and Natural Resources Management, Minister Francis Nhema said more than one third of Africa including Zimbabwe is under threat of desertification as once productive land is becoming a desert over years.

(continued)

All African countries have a chance to motivate every family to set up a small kitchen garden. Wherever they live, in rural and in urban areas, all Africans can produce fresh food in buckets, pots and bottles. See this simple, cheap and very efficient example in this photo : individual buckets, bucket towers, straw bales and bottle towers on pallets : it all depends on 5 minutes of political goodwill to get the population started. (Photo WVC)

World Day in South Africa (Google / Environm. Affairs – Rep. S. Africa )

Read at : Google Alerts – desertification

https://www.environment.gov.za/content/worldday_tocombatdesertification

World Day to Combat Desertification

Background

The World Day to Combat Desertification has been observed since 1995 to promote public awareness relating to international cooperation to combat desertification and the effects of drought.

In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared (General Assembly Resolution A/RES/49/115) June 17 the “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought” to promote public awareness of the issue, and the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa.

Ever since, country Parties to the Convention, organizations of the United Nations System, international and non-governmental organizations and other interested stakeholders have celebrated this particular day with a series of outreach activities worldwide.

The World Day to Combat Desertification is a unique occasion to remind everybody that desertification can be effectively tackled, that solutions are possible, and that key tools to this aim lay in strengthened community participation and co-operation at all levels.

Country Parties and civil society organizations are invited to organize events to celebrate the World Day to Combat Desertification as an additional opportunity to increase awareness raising and participation in the process.

---

World Day to Combat Desertification 2013 theme and activities

The theme of the 2013 World Day to Combat Desertification is drought and water scarcity. To mark this day, the UNCCD and partners are calling on civil society, governments, schools, the media and others to organize events  and  awareness  raising activities on the themes of water scarcity and drought preparedness.

(continued)

Apple blossoms are like a promising spring (Photo WVC)

Undernourishment, volatile food prices and sustainable agricultural productivity (Google / Independent European Daily Express)

Read at : Google Alerts – desertification

http://www.iede.co.uk/news/2013_2183/small-farmers-buffeted-climate-change

Small Farmers Buffeted by Climate Change

Inter Press Service

ROME, Jun 15 (IPS) – The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has long warned that a quarter of the world’s farmland is “highly degraded”.

The main culprits are natural disasters, including droughts, floods and desertification. These pressures have now reached critical levels, with climate change expected to worsen the situation, according to the FAO’s annual report The State of Food and Agriculture, released here.[pullquote]3[/pullquote]

At the 38th session of FAO’s biannual conference, currently underway in Rome, three major issues on the table are the high level of undernourishment, volatile food prices and sustainable agricultural productivity.

The United Nations said up to 12 percent of Africa’s agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) is being lost due to environmental degradation, with comparable figures for countries in Latin America varying from six percent in Paraguay to about 24 percent in Guatemala.

According to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), food yields in Uzbekistan have declined by 20 to 30 percent, while in East Africa nearly 3.7 million people still require food aid following the 2011 drought.

“Business as usual is no longer an option,” said UNCCD Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja.

“Desertification, land degradation and drought are key constraints to building social and environmental resilience, achieving global food security and delivering meaningful poverty reduction,” he added.

(continued)

A comprehensive strategy to eliminate desertification and land degradation (Google / The Frontier Post)

Read at : Google Alerts – desertification

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/16178/

Desertification, erosion may cause food shortage: Speaker

by Ghulam Mursalin Marwat.

LAKKI MARWAT: Agriculture experts have said that the problems like desertification and land degradation can cause a severe shortage of food in the coming future if sustainable plans and practical measures were not put in place on emergency basis to overcome them.

“The expansion of deserts and land erosion has badly impacted the agriculture sector underling the need for devising a comprehensive strategy to eliminate these problems at all costs”, they said while speaking at a seminar on ‘Extent of Desertification and Land Degradation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” held in the district agriculture office on Wednesday.

Speakers included Dr Subhan Qurashi, Dr Farman Ali and Dr Zahir Shah of Peshawar Agriculture University, Abdul Salam (P & D) and district director agriculture Dr Hussain Ahmad. Among others Model Farm Service Centre president Hameed Khan Meenakhel, District Soil Conservation Officer Nazeer Khan, officials of Livestock, forest and water management departments and a good number of farmers attended the seminar.

Speakers said that land degradation and desertification were detrimental for agriculture sector as the problems could confront the country especially KP province with the scarcity of agricultural production in future. “By addressing these problems we can boost the socio-economic condition of farmers and can also achieve the goal of alleviating poverty”, they maintained.

(continued)

Every family with a small backyard can produce sufficient fresh food to complete staple food (rice, wheat, …) by setting up towers of bottles (fixed on pallets in the background) or in towers of buckets (foreground) – (Photo WVC)

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) of Earth’s deserts (Science Daily)

Read at :

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130614125642.htm

Secrets of Biological Soil Crusts Uncovered

June 14, 2013 — They lie dormant for years, but at the first sign of favorable conditions they awaken. This sounds like the tagline for a science fiction movie, but it describes the amazing life-cycles of microbial organisms that form the biological soil crusts (BSCs) of Earth’s deserts. Now a research team with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has reported a unique molecular-level analysis of a BSC cyanobacterium responding to the wetting and drying of its environment. The results hold implications for land management, improved climate change models, and a better understanding of carbon cycling in soil microbial communities and how changes in global temperatures impact Earth’s deserts.

(continued)

Food aid or family gardening ? (Willem Van Cotthem)

MY REQUEST OF MAY 20TH 2013

http://desertification.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/alleviation-of-malnutrition-and-hunger-by-small-scale-container-gardening-jojo-rom-willem-van-cotthem/

We are counting on you to help us spread the good word.  Do not leave us preaching in the desert : ALLEVIATION OF MALNUTRITION AND HUNGER BY SMALL-SCALE CONTAINER GARDENING SHOULD BE HIGH ON THE PRIORITY LADDER OF ALL ORGANIZATIONS CONCERNED.

==================

MY RENEWED QUESTION (Willem Van Cotthem)

Did you hear a reply somewhere ?  Please inform me !

Weigh the difference : 10 years of food aid and one year of small-scale family gardening. Which is sustainable ? (Photo WVC)

Vacant position of the Climate Change and Desertification Unit (Google / UN Jobs)

Read at : Google Alerts – desertification

http://unjobs.org/vacancies/1370297769217

Environmental Economist, Climate Change and Desertification Control, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Closing Date: Monday, 01 July 2013

The African Union, established as a unique Pan African continental body, is charged with spearheading Africa’s rapid integration and sustainable development by promoting unity, solidarity, cohesion and cooperation among the peoples of Africa and African States as well as developing a New Partnership Worldwide. Its Headquarters is located in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.

In seeking to achieve the above objectives, the African Union seeks to fill the vacant position of the Climate Change and Desertification Unit in the Directorate of Rural Economy and Agriculture to strengthen its capacity to deliver by, among others, the implementation of a new organizational structure and the filling of all vacant posts.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

(continued)