The people in the rural areas always face serious problems of desertification, so government should allocate more funds to prevent the rural settlers from the dangers of this scourge.

About thirty five million people in northern Nigeria are suffering from the effects of desertification and the menace poses a serious threat to the nation’s economy, food security and employment. At least fifty thousand farmers in about 100 villages scattered along the desert fringes of the northern state of Yobe are currently at risk of losing their farmlands to sand dunes.

Regarding to ministry of Environment Yobe State aerial photographs taken indicate that producing and mass land occupied by the dunes has increased from 25000 hectares to more than 30,000 hectares with its attendant negative impact on food and livestock production.

The shelter belt established by government along desert fringes of eight northern states including Borno State under the world bank assisted a forestation programme have not been very effective as the trees have been felled for fire wood, while some have withered due to high temperature, inadequate rainfall and drought.

In Borno State, water has dried up due to acute drought aggravated by the effects of desertification in the state. The commissioner for housing and environment Borno State Ahmed Ashemi once said and I quote “when streams or ponds are silted and rendered enviable for water supply,  are indicators of drought conditions, which are symptoms of desertification. Although past shelter belt with the aid of the World Bank, their pour state causes convey as most of the trees are dying and communities felling them for fire wood”.

Federal ministry of environment report says that Nigeria ponders its forest by more than thirty million for fire wood annually due to pressure on the urban poor who resort to the cheapest means of cooking.

The rate of fire wood consumption far exceeds replenishment rate. The consequents of human dependence on wood for fuel and construction is that about 35,000 hectares of land is under the threat of deforested annually while the annual rate of reforestation is estimated at about 30,000 hectares. President Olusegun Obasanjo recently ordered one billion tree seedlings to be planted and distributed to farmers over the next five years. Apart from the federal governments programmes of producing tree seedlings for planting in the shelter belt as part of the a forestation programme, the eight states bordering the desert have also taken bold steps to check the movement of the desert.

For example, Borno State government has for the past three years, embarked on the planting of two million seedlings which have been distributed across the state. In 2001, Yobe state government released 28.325 million Naira (about 280,000 U.S dollars), for buying more than 8 million Gum Arabic seedlings before the commencement of the agricultural season, in its effort fight desert encroachment and raises the income of farmers through exportation or the product. The state’s target is to raise 10 million gum Arabic seedlings, for 299,000 families to be planted in 2,700 hectares of land. Gum Arabic, which is used for making glue, will serve a dual role the trees will act as shelter belt against desert encroachment, and the gum, when exported, will fetch the state some foreign currency.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reported in 2001 that more than 100 countries covering 3.6 million hectares were seriously affected by desertification, which affected vegetative cover of croplands, pastures and woodlands, with its negative impact on biological diversity, soil fertility, the hydrological cycle, crop yields and livestock production. One of the main causes of desertification, according to the FAO, is increasing pressure on land resulting from rapid demographic growth and poverty, often aggravated by increasingly recurrent droughts.

In 1994, the international community launched the convention to combat desertification (UNCCD) which became operational, in November 1997. Today more than 180 countries have ratified the convention but only a few have implemented substantial programmes and policies that support the UNCCD. Nigeria only began tackling desertification last year, when President Obasanjo launched a National Action Programme (NAP) on desertification, with a call for more concerted effort from all levels of government to check the menace of desertification. Obsanjo lamented that not much had been done in the past to combat the scourge, a situation he said, had given rise to the current problems.

“With the country losing as much as 350,999 hectares of land yearly to desertification, it could not afford to watch while arable land is being lost to desert encroachment it is because of this, that the government approved the establishment of a Green Belt across most of the northern parts of the country, spanning a length of 1,500 kilometers and a width of one kilometer.”   

The first step in the partnership will be the establishment of a Gum Arabic test laboratory that would provide the critical quantity control mechanism required to reassume the US market and open the door to Nigerian Gum Arabic. US interest in Nigeria’s Gum Arabic Soared last year, when the USAID announced the approval of seven million US dollars under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to facilitate the production of the commodity in the West African country.

Yobe state last year committed 285,000 US dollars to purchase 10 million seedlings governor of Yobe State Bukar Abba Ibrahim said with the raising of the seedlings, not less than 1,700 hectares of Gum Arabic will be established in the 17 local government areas within Yobe State in one year. The seedlings would be distributed free to local farmers, individuals, government and non governmental organizations during the planting season.

The Renewed interest in the growing of Gum Arabic trees covering 19 northern state which have been affected by the movement of the Sahara desert and have threatened the livelihood of the inhabitants, according environmentalists, would go a long way to checking desert encroachment in Nigeria. At full maturity, Gum Arabic can withstand any weather condition; animals do not easily destroy the thorny tree, making it a perfect tree to fight the menace of desert encroachment.

Adamu Bello, Minister of Agriculture said gum Arabic had played a significant role in the socio-Economic development of Nigeria. Between 1969 and 1979 about 48,966 tones of Gum Arabic were produced in Nigeria with Borno State being the highest producer. Gum export rose from 4,500 tones in 1980 to 5,000 tones in 1996.

          The shale zone of Nigeria has been the predominant area for the production of gum Arabic. It is however, disturbing to note that in spite of the tremendous potentials of the crop and the comparative advantage, the country has its production, Nigeria has seen unable to compete favorably in the international gum Arabic export market. Countries like Chad and Sudan have since overtaken Nigeria in the export of the commodity.

          Sudan’s export of Gum Arabic represents between 70 and 90 percent of the world’s supply. The United States alone imports 4,000 to 5,000 tones of the commodity from Sudan, totaling approximately nine million US dollars a years UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimates possible growth in Gum Arabic export from Nigeria at between 45 million US dollars and 68. Million dollars with a market share of 30 percent between year 2000 and 2010.

         At this rate, Nigeria can make almost four million US dollars annually from the commodity. United Nations organized conference on combating desertification in Nigeria, and Nigeria which took place in Germany in 2000. The minister of state in environment Dr. Ime Okokpido informed the international community that the entire northern Nigeria faced by possible extermination, if the country’s external debt were not canceled so that the government would use such an opportunity to fight desertification. More so, it is right to conclude that the federal government has every data it needs to ascertain that the desert in northern Nigerian is vulnerable to threat its corporate entity. Thank God to the amnesty our country received from the Paris club regarding the issue of debt cancellation. It would be advisable that the government should examine the issue of the desertification, which the people of this peat country are experiencing. It is inah time that the federal government will utilize this great opportunity to solve this problem, so that our people will have rest in their mind and carry on their business. Because the conservation made by the Paris club is for the country to make good use of the fund and solve its major problems which desertification is one of more s, when we talk about Niger Delta apple the environment would also be free from hazard that endanger the lives of the humanity, which if the federal government utilize the opportunity we have, would save the live of many Nigerians. Desertification has made many to be completed homeless, turn down of businesses and pessimistic of their future life.

          Desert encroachment remains a very serious issue to address, because it has seen neglected and the people affected by it and obviously voiceless. The bone of lot of Nigerians who lived in the Jaws of the hungry desert is quite glaring. Now, if I may ask just because these people and voiceless so they cannot gain the attention of the government?

          The Nigerian media have seen the need to address the oil exploitation related environmental problems in the Niger-Delta region of the country. But it is quite surprising that people are not raising complaints on the problem of desertification and the activities of the fire wood settlers which exposed the environment to more dangers. Trees that are planted to serve in combating the destructions, of desert encroachment and erosion are dismantled by these people there by causing more problems to the nation.   

          Government should put in place a check on the activities of these people they should come up with modalities that would help in cushioning of the problem.         

          The government should also see to it that the cooking gas and diesel are in sufficient quantity for domestic consumption. More especially the kerosene has a high demand by the public. Fire wood used as a close substitute of kerosene, but because of its scarcity and the ever increasing exorbitant and unstable price of the product. In Plateau State there was a time that the price of coal rose up, because of the high price in kerosene that the public could not afford to buy the product. A bag of coal was sold at N1,200 you can imagine how majority of Nigerians suffer. Those trees that are planted during the tree planting campaigns which need to be properly preserved and conserved, because they are very important to the environment and the people, so it is very vital for the government to mount pressures in such areas. But what happened after the tree planting campaign, you cannot identify the place trees were planted because environment has not much attention on the trees and do not consider the money spend in organizing and planting of those trees.      

                                     Shehu Othman Shehu.

                                     Dept.of  Mass Comm.

                          University of Maiduguri