Drought Management and Desertification Control: Still Miles to Go

Desertification is land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. This process has already affected one sixth of the world's population, 70% of all dry lands of ~3.6 billion hectares, and one quarter of the total land area of the world. The most obvious impact of desertification, in addition to widespread poverty, is the degradation of 3.3 billion hectares of the total area of rangeland, constituting 73% of the rangeland with a low potential for human and animal carrying capacity; decline in soil fertility and soil structure on about 47% of the dryland areas constituting marginal rainfed cropland; and the degradation of irrigated cropland, amounting to 30% of the dry land areas with a high population density and agricultural potential. Keeping the above in view, the NAM S&T Centre in partnership with the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad organised an International Workshop on ‘Drought Management and Desertification Control’ during 22-24 May 2017 at Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran which brought various stake holders, viz. scientists, experts and professionals engaged in R&D, policy making and implementation, to a common platform for up gradation of their skills and sharing views and experiences in the drought management and desertification control. As a follow up of the above workshop, the present book – ‘Drought Management and Desertification Control- Still Miles to Go’ - has been edited by Dr. R.P. Dhir and Dr. Kisamba Mugerwa. There are 14 scientific technical papers contributed by the experts from 10 countries. The book is expected to be of great value to all those associated in combating desertification and drought for sustainable food production including the researchers, local communities, rural agencies, national governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and regional and international organisations.