Desertification, brought about by human-induced factors and climate change, is a land degradation process. Human activities such as over-cultivation and poor irrigation methods are turning quickly into barren patches of land fertile soils that take centuries to form. Without access to sustainable land use practices, poor farmers are reduced to cultivating degraded land, only to initiate a vicious cycle, which is why tacking rural poverty is critical to combating desertification. No long-term strategy of poverty elimination can succeed in the face of the environmental forces that promote persistent erosion of soil. Under current projections of climate change, the hardship and human loss caused by draughts could increase if its contributing factors are left un-addressed.
