Moringa & Desertification

A big problem that is partly caused by climate change is desertification. Because Moringa Trees grow fast and well in dry areas, it can play a role in the battle against desertification. The presence of long taproot make it resistant to periods of drought. It grows also in areas where strong winds and long, dry spells occur simultaneously, causing serious soil erosion.

Moringa Tree can play a role in the fight against desertification

The extremely hardy Moringa Oleifera can be irrigated with water containing up to eight grams of salt per liter, and adapt well to desert conditions by drawing water from deep under the ground. The plant also protects other crops by creating a barrier from the wind and sand, and improves soil quality

Dryland environments are fragile. Their vegetative cover is sparse; when removed through overgrazing or excessive tillage, exposed soils quickly erode and lose fertility, and the surface-sealed soils cause water to be lost as runoff.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting primarily from human activities and influenced by climatic variations. It’s also a failure of the ecological succession process. A major impact of desertification is biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity, for example, by transition from land dominated by shrublands to non-native grasslands. In the semi-arid regions of southern California, many coastal sage scrub and chaparral ecosystems have been replaced by non-native, invasive grasses due to the shortening of fire return intervals. This can create a monoculture of annual grass that can not support the wide range of animals once found in the original ecosystem. In Madagascar’s central highland plateau, 10% of the entire country has been lost to desertification due to slash and burn agriculture by indigenous peoples. In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU’s Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa. Globally, desertification claims a Nebraska-sized area of productive capacity each year….