KARACHI, June 17: Experts at a seminar on Thursday urged the government to prepare strategies at national, provincial and district levels for agriculture, besides constructing small, cost-affective dams , ponds and lakes to store rainwater for cultivation.

They warned that the country, especially Sindh, was heading towards a "major food crisis" due to desertification and drought, as over 11 million hectares of land had become waterlogged.

"Desertification process is deteriorating country's crops as well as range lands and during the last five decades, total cultivated area in the country only increased by 0.4 per cent annually, as compared to 3.1 per cent population growth" they said.

The seminar on "Need of a Crash Program to Combat Desertification and Drought" was jointly organized by the Pakistan Press Foundation and the Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment to mark the United Nation's 'World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought' on June 17.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shamim Ahmed Shaikh, chairman, Geology department, Karachi University, said technically a desert was a place, which received less than 250 mm rain annually, while the major causes of desertification were drought and human activities.

According to him, drought is a natural phenomenon, but in the present world, human activities, environmental pollution, mining and deforestation were more responsible for it than climatic changes.

"We are facing food and income losses, besides incurable loss to bio-diversity, due to desertification in the country, and that can only be controlled by preparing water and land management policies," he said.

Dr Shaikh observed that traditional agricultural methods were more environment-friendly, but nowadays we needed innovation in agricultural practices as well as adoption of modern techniques, for not only enhancing agriculture output but also to protect land from desertification.

Syed Jamshed Bukhari, of the Environmental Journalists' Forum viewed that misuse of resources, less rains, human activities, land erosion and natural calamities were among major causes of desertification and were causing heavy loss to country's economy.

He said that owing to a lack of awareness, farmers were taking meagre steps to save their lands from water logging, adding that media could play an effective role in creating awareness among people in this regard.

Mashood Ahmed Siddiqi, administrative in charge, Environment Protection Agency, Hyderabad, said deforestation was the basic cause of desertification in the country, adding that less than 1.5 per cent of the country's land had left covered with forests.

According to him, poor water management, introduction of foreign plant species, use of artificial fertilizers and establishment of brick kilns were some other causes of desertification and it could be avoided by reverting to cultivation of traditional plant species on our land.

Besides, kitchen waste and bio-mass should be used as manure instead of artificial fertilizers, which added to infertility of land, he added. He also stressed that 'crop zones' should be established all over the country, which should be specified for particular crops, otherwise it would be difficult to obtain crops in desirable quantity.

Tanvir Arif, Chief Executive, SCOPE, said desertification could be controlled through rainwater harvesting through small dams, introduction of controlled grazing and checking deforestation.

He said that according to the UN, annual bill of cost of desertification was $40 billion. The seminar was followed by a question-answer session, while PPF Director Samina Ishaque also spoke on the occasion. -PPI