World Day to Combat Drought and Desertification (17 June 2022) highlights important global actions
to rehabilitate and restore degraded land around the globe.
Drought is one of the most destructive natural disasters arising from intensive agriculture,
deforestation, wildfires and water stress. Exacerbated by land degradation and climate change,
droughts are becoming increasing in frequency. A major concern with desertification is the loss of
topsoil, the layer responsible for food production.
According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation, 95% of the world’s food is grown
in the upper layer of soil. Lose this, and we lose the ability to feed populations.
Desertification and drought are slow encroaching natural hazards, impacting society, the economy
and environment, and demands our immediate attention in order to continue sustaining food
production to meet basic human needs.
To address desertification, we need to focus our attention on restoring our fertile land and topsoil.
This should be treated as an urgent environmental issue. In South Africa, we should be focusing on a
circular organic waste system that takes our food waste to turn it into rich organic compost.
Commercially, 10 million tonnes of food waste is produced every year in South Africa. This is a
massive opportunity to tap into a resource that can contribute to soil health when composted.
With the BiobiN composting unit, all food waste, wet waste, and organic material can be processed
into compost. By adopting this model, we can avoid sending waste to landfill and develop a
composting resource that can assist with the rehabilitation of degraded land and soil.
For more information on World Day to Combat Drought and Desertification,
visit https://www.unccd.int/.
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