World day to combat desertification and drought

JUNE 17, THE world day to combat desertification, constitutes a unique occasion to remind everybody that desertification can be effectively tackled. The theme of this year’s world day to combat desertification and drought, “Desertification and climate change — one global challenge,” reminds us that climate change and desertification interact with each other at a variety of levels. They are two major manifestations of the same problem. And together they seriously threaten our ability to reach the millennium development goals by 2015.
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Golden wheat “greens” Kenya´s drylands

Hot and barren, Kenya´s dry lands have long been unfit for agriculture, at best merely a grazing area for wild animals and livestock.

Today, the landscape is more picturesque and productive, lined with golden stalks of wheat yielding precious grain for Kenya´s farms and families. The wheat is a new variety, one that is high yielding and resistant to drought. As a result, small farming families are realizing harvests on farmlands once considered too poor to cultivate, to the country´s social and economic benefit.
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