Desertification in Ghana
What exactly is desertification? Unfortunately, there are many responses and many contradicting definitions. Some say that it is permanent, others say it is a reversible process. There are even debates on whether the definition should include human involvement or not. It seems that all that can be agreed on is that it is "the most serious environmental problem facing Africa today" (Nsiah-Gyabaah, Kwasi. Environmental Degradation and Desertification in Ghana pg 27). At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Developments (Earth Summit, 1992) desertification was defined as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry semi-humid areas, resulting from various factors, including climate variations and human activities" ("Desertification," Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (S J0180). www.uia.org/uniademo/str/j0180.htm). When pondering the terms 'desertification' or 'desertified land' our culture forms mental images of large dunes with sand slowing moving over them like in an ocean. Perhaps a camel or two, baking in the sun. This romanticized idea is far from what scientists call desertification. In real life desertification looks like an area of hard and cracked earth with sand blowin
They are natural and artificial recovery. The theory is based on the idea that people would be more concerned with the negative effects on the land if they owned the land themselves and got something from it. What are people doing to cope with losing their land, homes and jobs? It all depends on how much of the farmland they can salvage. There are many reasons for desertification. There are two types of artificial recovery. If there is little or nothing that can be saved, the situation changes into that of the Dust Bowl. "Multi-crop agriculture, also called the inter-cropping system, or alley or strip cropping, is the simultaneous culture of two or more crops in the same plot" (Mainguet, 220). Some of the ways that farmers can help is by implementing crop rotation and multi-crop agriculture. The answer, however, lies in the hands of each country and its citizens. If they are still able to grow some crops on it then they can switch to substitute foods (tree fruits) and share what they can grow between houses. These people sell whatever livestock and possessions they have left and perhaps migrate to other areas to farm or try to sell themselves as labor (Nsiah-Gyabaah, 162). Some examples of where natural recovery has worked are Southern Tunisia and Iran.
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