Desertification presents a significant global environmental challenge with profound socio-economic impacts and potential opportunities for innovation in agriculture and renewable energy. In recognition of World Environment Day 2024, themed “Land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience,” this article examines desertification, its socio-economic impacts, and its potential to catalyze sustainable development and community resilience in Africa through innovations in renewable energy and crop farming.
Exploring the Concept of Desertification
Desertification is a form of land degradation that makes dry regions increasingly arid, resulting in the deterioration of productive soil and the loss of water bodies, biodiversity, and vegetation cover. It is not the physical expansion of existing deserts but a diverse process that threatens all dryland ecosystems, including deserts, grasslands, and scrublands. These ecosystems cover 41.3% of the Earth’s total land surface (Figure 1), which is 149 million km² (58 million sq mi).
Figure 1: Surface Area of the Earth
Source: ChatBin
Desertification is driven by climatic shifts and human factors, which include overgrazing, deforestation, poor irrigation practices, and unsustainable agricultural practices. It is recognized as one of the most severe global environmental challenges, directly impacting over 250 million people and threatening the lives of about 1 billion individuals. Approximately 135 million people face potential displacement by 2045 due to desertification. In Africa, its impacts are severe due to the vast dry land and the continent’s heavy reliance on agriculture for social and economic development. It exacerbates water scarcity, degrades soil fertility, and causes vegetation loss on dry land. Dry land covers 66% of Africa’s land surface, and the agricultural sector, which heavily depends on dry land for food, crops, and livestock production, contributes 30% – 60% of GDP across African countries. The sector also employs about two-thirds of the continent’s working population. This implies that desertification poses a significant threat to economic and sustainable development in Africa, as it can reduce agricultural productivity, threaten food security, exacerbate poverty, and increase forced migration and displacements in both rural and urban regions.
Despite these profound socio-economic implications, desertification can paradoxically catalyze sustainable development and community resilience in Africa through innovations in renewable energy and crop farming.
Desertification as a Catalyst for Innovation in Crop Farming
Crop farming faces significant threats from desertification, including degrading arable land, reduced soil fertility, and diminishing water resources. Addressing these challenges in Africa requires implementing innovative solutions or adopting successful practices from other regions to strengthen crop farming, enhance production, improve efficiency, and ensure smooth operations. One example is using biomass to rehabilitate degraded soil. Over 2500 years ago, the Indigenous population of the Amazon Basin of South America developed Biochar; a carbon-rich material that is made from biomass through a thermochemical conversion process known as pyrolysis. Biochar has been scientifically proven to rehabilitate degraded soils and enhance sustainable agriculture. However, its adoption in Africa has been slow despite the abundant biomass from forest residues, crop residue, livestock manure, and municipal waste. This is due to inadequate technology and strategies for biochar production and a misalignment between its environmental benefits and commercial motivations. Consequently, biomass is mainly used for energy generation in Africa, leaving its potential to address crop farming challenges through biochar production largely untapped. Over 80% of the population uses biomass primarily for cooking, and about 50% of Africa’s energy is derived from biomass.
Furthermore, Soil-less farming innovations offer another way to combat the impacts of desertification and improve crop farming practices. Introduced in the 1930s, this method uses mineral nutrient solutions instead of soil and has been commercially used for about 40 years, with China, India, Japan, North America, and Europe leading the market. Adoption is gradually increasing in some African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa, where it is used to grow tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, and peppers. However, it is not widespread due to farmers’ reluctance to abandon traditional methods, lack of awareness, technical complexities, limited access to capital, and infrastructural challenges. Widespread adoption of soil-less farming could significantly boost crop production and mitigate the effects of desertification if adaptive techniques like hydroponics, aquaponics, aeroponics, vertical farming, and using locally sourced materials like bamboo and coconut coir for construction are employed.
Desertification as an impetus for Renewable Energy Innovation
Desertification can drive renewable energy innovation and growth in Africa. The natural conditions of desertified regions—minimal vegetation, strong wind patterns, high geothermal gradients, and high solar irradiance—are ideal for renewable energy projects like wind, geothermal, and solar energy. For example, the Sahara Desert receives over 4,000 hours of sunshine per year, nearly double that of Lagos, Nigeria, and almost three times that of Germany. This abundant sunshine, with expansive land, flat terrain, and the availability of silicon (figure 2) for making solar cells, gives the Sahara the potential to supply four times the world’s current energy demand. This explains why the world’s ten largest solar plants are located in deserts or dry regions.
Figure 2: Content of silicon element in desert sand, river sand and sea sand.
Source: De Gruyter
A notable example of renewable energy innovation driven by desertification is the Noor Ouarzazate Solar Power Station in the Moroccan desert, which generates up to 580 MW of electricity, making it one of the largest in the world. It supplies electricity to over 2 million Moroccans, prevents about one million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, and creates jobs for over 2,000 people, 85% of whom are Moroccans. This highlights the multifaceted socio-economic benefits of such innovations, including local job creation and progress toward SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and the global net-zero target. However, building solar plants in deserts can disrupt fragile ecosystems, strain limited water resources, create localized heat islands, generate dust affecting air quality and solar efficiency, and cause land use conflicts with traditional practices and cultural sites.
Desertification unfolds numerous innovative opportunities for socio-economic development in agriculture and renewable energy across Africa. By leveraging these opportunities, the continent can mitigate the adverse effects of desertification and foster a more sustainable future. However, achieving long-term economic growth and environmental sustainability requires government and private sector support for research and development initiatives in desertified regions, as well as the implementation of policies that incentivize investment and community participation.
About the Author(s)
Olayide Oyeleke is an associate at The AR Initiative
