Desertification. Desertification is land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. Also described as a loss in these areas of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rain-fed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest or woodlands resulting from land uses or human processes such as soil erosion caused by such poor agricultural practices as monoculture, soil tilling, and the use of synthetic pesticides.
