The patron African climate reporters dr Yusuf nadabo make this statement during his presentation at Teku kaduna international farm To mark this year world desertification day .
Nadabo who was the former head of Anatomy department kaduna state university “kasu” told journalists shortly after his presentation that the world must rise-up and face reality and tell our serves the truth,and find news ways of tackling the speed of desertification that is affecting agricultural land and forcing millions of people into migration from urban to rural centre across the planet.
He says, Desertification has triggered displacements across the world. Each year, millions of hectares of land are lost. According to the UN agencies, land degradation affects 1.5 billion people globally. Their reports reveal how desertification has turned into a monstrous challenge for Africa:
The situation is worse in African due to lack of serious dedication and commitment by both NGOs/CSO and the authority,as desertification is now trying to turned the region into a monstrous challenges that could affect every sector in the region
He says annually ,Africa loses about 80 million tonnes of cereal crops from about 105 million hectares of croplands. This can be prevented if soil erosion is curbed.
Adding also that desertification has affected many states from Northern Nigeria ,and many otrher African countries which include Niger republic,Chad,Cameroon ETC.
He then calls on all Nigerians, NGO and CSO,youth organization,Religious leaders,traditional title holders to immensely double effort toward supporting the government in the daily battled against desertification that is affecting the region
The Great Green wall is a pan-African proposal to plant a wall of trees at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert to battle desertification. The strip of land from Dakar to Djibouti is 15 km (9 mi) wide and 7,100 km (4,400 mi) long.
Dr nadabo then calls on kaduna state government to introduce tougher punishment for bush burners,and also appealed for another tougher punishment for people that are cutting down tress illegally in the foresty of kaduna
Earlier in his opening remark ,Mallam Ibrahim salisu who is the founder of Teku international farm kaduna that organizes the event , told journalists shortly after his presentation that, the event was organize toward supporting kaduna state government with over 550 different varies of trees species , in other to combat desertification that is encroaching the state,and to rise more awareness on 17 th June, international day to combat desertification.
Ibrahim said,for the past 3 months,kaduna state has declare state of emergency in its forestry ,so as to halt the speed of deforestation ,desertification ,and save young trees that are facing problems due to continuous demand for domestic used and other climatic factors.
He said,the demand for charcoal is becoming another big problems disturbing the existence of African forestry,hence the need to stand up and support the government in the fight against desertification through donating trees and also used other means of informing the society on the danger of cutting down tress with planting a new one.
(Deseartification is real and is affecting all aspect of human life,hence the need to support the government against deforestation )
Ibrahim says ,millions of people from north-eastern Nigeria were force to migrate due to the effect of desertification and how it affected their farmland and the environement they lived
Adding that,the best way to halt the speed of desertification that is turning agricultural land to sahara is to plant trees,and sensitize the public on the implication of cutting down tress without planting a new once
Pointing out that, the Continuous cultivation without adding supplements, overgrazing, lack of soil and water conservation structures, and indiscriminate bushfires aggravate the process of desertification.
Ibrahim further said,every year,he use to plant over 80,000 different spacies of trees ,and half of its goes to some part of the states ,while some also goes to the neighboring African countries
He says,Many companies from neighboring countries do usually comes and buys tress and take it to their countries for planting,in other to protect their environment ,
In his own presentation Dr Tabi Joda,the Executive Director, Green Aid, expressed concern that over 3,000000 square metres of land in sub-Sahara Africa have already been taken over by desertification and the situation is getting tougher and tougher every day as a result of lack of serious commitment by authourity and all the stake holders in the region
“To make this possible, i call on individuals, Community leaders, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), to really look into the necessity and urgency of combating this desertification, because so many communities are already feeling the threats of desertification.
“The people should understand that masses of disasters that we are experiencing now, like drought, flood, soil degradation and erosion are all as a result of artificial human activities that has caused desertification, so what the people should do is to reverse the trend by planting trees.
Receiving the 550 trees donated by Teku Farm, Dr. Abdulkadir Kasim, Permanent Secretary Kaduna State Ministry of Agric and Forestry, pointed out the action of management of the farm is a great eye opener for the state government.
According to him, “the desire of the state government is gradually coming to fusion, it is the desire of this government to ensure we encourage private sector in whatever human endeavor we get involved with.
Dr kasim applaud the effort of Teku Farm which is aim at fighting desertification in state
Also responding,mr lot kaduma from sustainable cities advocate(Urban Future project) he thanks the organisers of the event and call on Citizens to be supporting the government in protecting the trees
In his own Remark ,comrade Rilwani abdullahi, leaders of person with disability in the state says ,”we are the worse hit by climate change in the entire Africa due to our nature”
Abdullahi added,desertification is a big problems
