Desert Encroachment

Our team, ZapIT, has decided to focus on desert encroachment.


What is desert encroachment?

Desert encroachment is when deserts increase territory at an abnormal speed. The speed at which deserts are encroaching at present is between five and seven kilometres a year.

How does it affect us?

Because of the encroachment of the desert, more and more potential farming land is lost, thus resulting in food shortage and poverty which has been growing at an alarming rate over the past decades. This is becoming a major problem and is affecting our future on Earth.

How can we prevent it?

We can change these desolate areas into excellent farming land if we just make an effort. Firstly, water will need to be brought in. Water is precious, and there is so little of it that can be used, so we must make use of water purifiers. These machines take sea water and clean it so that it can be used for drinking water or crops.

Once cleaned, the water will be transported to its designated areas by underground pipelines.

The water must then be used in connection with ground fertilizing, tree planting and monitoring the ground with probes.

Fertilized ground can save up to 50% of water use, which would be the way to go in deserts where it is nearly impossible to get enough water. The most efficient one we could find through our studies is TerraCottem; this particular fertilizer is applied in over 50 countries throughout the world.

A recent survey has showed that by planting trees in the farmers’ lands the crop production is better and rainfall is increased. Thus planting trees is a great step in fighting desert encroachment.

The ground must also be monitored by probes to make sure that none of the water used is wasted by over irrigation or to stop the plants from dying thirst.

By doing this and planting farms, we can also solve the worldwide food crisis.