Desertification Threatens Economy, Food Security

By Toye Olori
LAGOS

It is no longer news in Nigeria that the Sahara Desert is moving southwards at a rate of 0.6 km yearly. What is news is that about 35 million people in northern Nigeria are suffering from the effects of desertification.

And the menace is posing a serious threat to the nation's economy, food security and employment.

At least 50,000 farmers in about 100 villages scattered along the desert fringes of the northern state of Yobe, one of the eight affected by desertification, are currently at risk of abandoning this year's farming season due to sand dunes.

The dunes have covered a large expanse of agricultural farmlands, oasis and ponds, according to a team, which toured the region in July.

''The dunes are threatening life-supporting oasis, burying water points and in some cases engulfing major roads in the affected areas. Trees planted by government as shelter belts to check the advancing dunes are withering due to lack of attention,'' the team says in a document, which has been made available to TerraViva.

The document, compiled by the Ministry of Environment in Yobe State, says aerial photographs taken indicate that productive and mass land occupied by the dunes has increased from 25,000 hectares to more than 30,000 hectares, with its attendant negative impact on food and livestock production.

''Considering a conservative production of five bags of 100 kg of grain of millet or sorghum per hectare in the area, it means the 30,000 hectares destroyed by the dunes is capable of producing over 1,500 bags of millet. With an average grain requirement of one bag of 100 kg of millet per family of four per month, it then follows that 150,000 bags can support 12,500 families of four or 50,000 people per year. The big question is how do these 50,000 people survive in this area?'' the document wonders.

The destruction of the 30,000 hectares of agricultural land has a negative impact on livestock survival in the state, which has a high concentration of animals in the vast West African country, it says.

''Losing 30,000 hectares of grazing land annually means denying grazing land for 3,000 head of cattle annually,'' it states.

Reports from the other seven states bordering the desert are not different either.

The shelter belts established by government along desert fringes of eight northern states including Borno State under the World Bank-assisted afforestation programme, have not been very effective as the trees have been felled for firewood, while some have withered due to high temperature, inadequate rainfall and drought.

Ahmed Ashemi, Commissioner for Housing and Environment in Borno State, told the visiting team that some bore holes dug by government to provide water have dried up due to acute drought aggravated by the effects of desertification in the state.

''When streams or ponds are silted and rendered not viable for water supply, they are indicators of drought conditions, which are symptoms of desertification. Although past administrations had tried to establish shelter belts with the aid of the World Bank, their poor state causes concern, as most of the trees are drying and communities are felling them for firewood,'' Ahmed said.

A report from the Federal Ministry of Environment says that Nigeria plunders its forest by more than 30 million tonnes for firewood annually due to pressure on the urban poor who resort to the cheapest means of cooking.

''The rate of fuel wood consumption far exceeds replenishment rate. The consequence of human dependence on wood for fuel and construction is that about 350,000 hectares of land is under the threat of deforestation annually, while the annual rate of reforestation is estimated at about 30,000 hectares,'' the report says.

President Olusegun Obasanjo recently ordered one billion tree-seedlings to be planted and distributed to farmers over the next five years.

Apart from the Federal government's programmes of producing tree seedlings for planting in the shelter belt as part of the afforestation programme, the eight states bordering the desert have also taken bold steps to check the movement of the desert.

For example, Borno State government has for the past three years, embarked on the planting of two million seedlings which have been distributed across the state.

In 2001, Yobe state government released 28.325 million Naira (about 280,000 U.S. dollars) for buying more than 8 million Gum Arabic seedlings before the commencement of the agricultural season, in its effort to fight desert encroachment and raise the income of farmers through exportation of the product.

The state's target is to raise 10 million gum Arabic seedlings, for 299,000 families to be planted in 2,700 hectares of land.

Gum Arabic, which is used for making glue, will serve a dual role; the trees will act as shelter belt against desert encroachment, and the gum, when exported, will fetch the state some foreign currency.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) reported in 2001 that more than 100 countries covering 3.6 million hectares were seriously affected by desertification, which affected vegetative cover of croplands, pastures and woodlands, with its negative impact on biological diversity, soil fertility, the hydrological cycle, crop yields and livestock production.

One of the main causes of desertification, according to the FAO, is increasing pressure on land resulting from rapid demographic growth and poverty, often aggravated by increasingly recurrent droughts.

In 1994, the International Community launched the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which became operational in November 1997. Today more than 180 countries have ratified the convention, but only a few have implemented substantial programmes and policies that support the UNCCD.

Nigeria only began tackling desertification last year, when President Obasanjo launched a National Action Programme (NAP) on desertification, with a call for more concerted effort from all levels of government to check the menace of desertification.

Obasanjo lamented that not much had been done in the past to combat the scourge, a situation he said, had given rise to the current problems.

''With the country losing as much as 350,999 hectares of land yearly to desertification, it could not afford to watch while arable land is being lost to desert encroachment. It is because of this, that the government approved the establishment of a Green Belt across most of the northern parts of the country, spanning a length of 1,500 kilometres and a width of one kilometre,'' he said.

Under the programme, the Federal Ministry of Environment is expected to plant about 150 million trees along the arid northern zone.

But environmentalists have chided government for its inconsistency in policies, especially on desertification, which, they argued had not helped afforestation.

''Government's inconsistent policy on desertification had not helped matters. Continual increase of the prices of kerosine, a major source of cheaper alternative to firewood, has only worsen the situation,'' says Peter Ajala, an environmentalist.

Ajala described as ineffective, the tree planting exercise undertaken once in a year to encourage afforestation.

The state's target is to raise 10 million gum Arabic seedlings, for 299,000 families to be planted in 2,700 hectares of land.