by Tokie Laotan

Created on: September 29, 2008   Last Updated: October 01, 2011

The world's dry-lands have been reckoned to be threatened by desertification, this has been due to the fact that encroachment on Agricultural areas have become a major concern. The process of land degradation resulting from various climatic factors such as climatic variation, change and human activities, sees land degradation usually occurring via forms of ruined and used up vegetative ground. The exposure of the soil surface to elements through salinization as well as water-logging has resulted in deterioration of the earth's surfaces.

In the past century due to human activities, pollution and encroachment, the earth's lands have increasingly become unproductive deserts hence its irrigated lands have become terribly salinized. There has become a shortage of crop yields worldwide, like the rice shortages that have been reported in China. Long-term effects of global warming and climate change has had a devastating impact on vegetative loss, this precipitated impact can be traced back to human removal and the inability of the environment to rehabilitate. Although the environment has been subject to natural causes and human activities, reversing the process, must be the world's utmost concern.

Investing in reversing the environments problems, can be addressed by irrigating deserts, desalinizing ocean water as some of the examples available. The provision of water for irrigation helps the production of vegetative products on dry-lands, regained from desertative areas. Desalinizing ocean water using solar energy, tidal flow as energy sources can be innovative renewable sources. To enhance the ability to plant new vegetative crops on regained lands, major constraints to vegetative production needs to be considerably focused on, like reducing the impact of moisture loss, heat and salinity on the grounds. Vegetative breeding methods will need to be improved, ocean water management techniques need to be improved to prevent fertility loss, erosion as well as salinization.

Research methods need to be integrated into the management strategies as well as technological approaches for vegetation on dry-lands that will increase significantly the production, sustainability of natural resources that will satisfy the needs and potential of the human population. The development of ocean water harvesting can optimize utilization and significantly increase irrigative measures on reclaimed dry-lands.

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