Land Degradation: The Silent Enemy of Food Security

Fakhar-e-Alam

Peshawar: As the morning sun illuminates Mohib Banda village in Nowshera district, Hussain Ali, a 28-year-old farmer, starts his tractor to smooth out his farmland, which had become bumpy from recent heavy rains and flash floods from the River Kabul.

Waking up early, Hussain checks the diesel in his tractor before heading to his fields. These fields, once fertile, had been rendered uncultivable by the rushing waters of the River Kabul during the devastating floods of 2010 and 2022.

Now, after the recent flash flood, five more acres of his land lay unproductive.

“With each flood, I lose more land,” Hussain says, his eyes filled with tears. He worries about the impact on this year’s wheat production, as his crops were submerged by floodwaters.

According to Diyar Khan, the project director of the billion trees project, land degradation and desertification, largely caused by climate change, pose significant challenges to countries in the region, including Pakistan.

He emphasizes the collective responsibility of developed nations to financially support countries highly susceptible to climate change and desertification.

Khan declares that land degradation threatens food security in regional countries, including Pakistan, with around 6 million hectares of land becoming unproductive each year.

Globally, this results in approximately $42 billion in economic losses annually. Without proper control measures, it could lead to water scarcity, starvation, and hunger in the coming decades.

According to a report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), over 3.2 billion people, or two out of every five individuals, are impacted by land degradation and desertification.

By 2050, up to 143 million people could be internally displaced within their countries due to water scarcity and declining crop yields, primarily stemming from climate change.

Additionally, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that the planet is on track to reach a 1.5°C temperature increase by 2030, resulting in severe droughts, food shortages, and floods.

Diyar Khan highlighted that approximately 45 percent of the world’s food supply comes from drylands, and the decline in agricultural productivity, coupled with food shortages and water scarcity in South Asia, could lead to food insecurity. 

Khan cautioned that without controlling desertification and floods, around 20 percent more productive land in South Asia could face degradation in the coming decades.

Professor Dr Muhammad Nafees of the Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Peshawar noted that Pakistan is one of 110 countries worldwide where roughly two-thirds of agricultural land and about 80 percent  of arid and semi-arid lands are affected by land degradation, desertification, and drought.

He emphasized that Pakistan’s population is growing at a rate of over two percent, placing increasing pressure on agriculture, housing, and other socioeconomic sectors.

He expressed concern that the country may face challenges of food insecurity in the coming decades if population growth is not controlled and climate change issues are not addressed.

The Sustainable Land Management Program (SLMP-Phase II), a project of the Ministry of Climate Change, disclosed that approximately 1.5 to 2.5 million hectares of irrigated land, 3.5 to 4 million hectares of rain-fed agricultural land, and 35 million hectares of rangelands are either turning barren or unproductive annually due to desertification, land degradation, and drought.

In the western dry mountain regions of Sindh and Balochistan, underground water resources are dwindling due to excessive exploitation of aquifers without natural recharge, exacerbated by excessive pumping for activities like car washing.

Dr. Nafees highlighted that low-lying areas in Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab, situated directly along riverbanks, are experiencing increased instances of land degradation due to climate change impacts, floods, improper land use practices, overgrazing, deforestation, and excessive vegetation removal for fuel.

He noted that evidence of land degradation and desertification is visible in districts such as Swabi, Mardan, and Nowshera along the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway, as well as in Kohat, Karak, Lakki Marwat, and DI Khan districts along the Indus Highway, where trees have been uprooted.

“The illegal felling of forests by local communities for household needs, timber smuggling by organized criminal groups, and the conversion of agricultural land into residential areas have exacerbated the issues of desertification and land degradation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he noted.

He highlighted that the national deforestation rate stands at approximately 27,000 hectares per year, particularly affecting community-owned natural forests in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. This has led to an expansion of dry-land areas and the transformation of agricultural lands into deserts.

To address desertification, land degradation, and drought, the federal government initiated SLMP Phase-I in nine dry-land districts of Pakistan. Through reseeding and community-based restoration of grazing management systems, over 12,000 hectares of degraded rangelands were rehabilitated.

Additionally, approximately 8,000 hectares of land were brought under sustainable rain-fed agriculture and water conservation measures.

Building on the success of SLMP Phase-I, the project was expanded to 14 desertification-prone districts under SLMP Phase-II in 2015. Its aim was to safeguard fertile land from desertification.

The project targeted high desertification and land degradation areas in districts such as Chakwal, Bhakkar, Khushab, and Layyah in Punjab; Tharparkar, Umarkot, and Sanghar in Sindh; DI Khan and Lakki Marwat in KP; and Pashin, Kila Saifullah, Mastung, Katch, and Lasbela in Balochistan.

The Project Director of the Billion Trees Project stated that to address land degradation, desertification, and drought through scientifically managed approaches, KP has implemented its first Range Management Policy known as “REDD+” (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) strategy, along with the Green Growth Initiative (GGI).

These initiatives are yielding visible and measurable outcomes.