Desertification makes the Piauí area look like Mars; see photos – 11/02/2023 – Environment

Surrounded by red craters reminiscent of Mars, cattle rancher Ubiratan Lemos Abade stretches his arms, showing two possible futures for his lands, threatened by desertification.

Abbot, 65 years old, lives in the largest desertification zone in Brazil: Gilbués, in the state of Piauí (765 km from Teresina), where the arid landscape and dotted with canyons devours farms and has already reached many properties, in a larger area than New York City.

According to experts, the phenomenon is caused by rampant erosion in the region’s fragile soil and exacerbated by deforestation, indiscriminate growth and, probably, climate change.

But hundreds of families who make their living from farming refuse to abandon this desolate land and resort to creativity to defy the odds and draw attention to the problem.

“Before there was more rain. Now it has decreased, it’s out of control. That’s why we have to work with irrigation. If it’s not [assim]there is no way to survive”, says Abade.

He points, to his right, to a field of dry grass, which died before his cattle could graze there. To his left, he shows a lush plot of grass watered with a makeshift irrigation system, which he depends on to keep his cows and himself alive.

He implemented the system a year ago: he dug a well and installed a network of hoses.

“If it didn’t have irrigation, it would look like that one. I didn’t irrigate that one and it’s dying of thirst,” he says. “You have to have technology [para produzir aqui]. But for those who are weak in conditions, it is difficult.”

‘Weak Earth’

From the sky, Gilbués’s “desert” looks like a giant crumpled sheet of brick-colored sandpaper.

The problem of erosion is not new. The term “Gilbués” probably comes from the indigenous word “jeruboés”, which means “weak land”, says environmental historian Dalton Macambira, from the Federal University of Piauí.

But humanity has worsened the problem by devastating and burning the vegetation, whose roots helped contain the friable soil, and by expanding construction in a city of currently 11,000 inhabitants.

Gilbués was the scene of a diamond rush in the mid-20th century, a sugarcane boom in the 1980s and is now one of the main soybean-producing municipalities in the state.

“Where there are people, there is demand for natural resources,” says Macambira. “This economic activity ends up accelerating the problem and demands from the natural environment a support capacity that it does not have.”

According to a study published in January by Macambira, the area affected by desertification more than doubled, from 387 km² to 805 km² from 1976 to 2019, affecting around 500 farming families.

Scientists say more studies are needed to determine whether global warming is accelerating the phenomenon.

Farmers have seen drier seasons and shorter but more intense rains, which worsens the problem: heavy rainfall washes away more land and further deepens the huge canyons, known as gullies.

According to Macambira, global warming can only make the situation worse. In regions with environmental degradation problems, “climate changes tend to have a more perverse effect”, she says.

Opportunities

For the United Nations, desertification is a silent crisis that affects 500 million people around the world and is a cause of poverty and conflict.

But the problem also brings opportunities, according to Fabriciano Corado, president of the conservation group SOS Gilbués.

The 58-year-old agronomist says that, although Gilbués’ soil easily suffers from erosion, at the same time it is ideal, because it is rich in phosphorus and clay and does not need fertilizers or other treatments.

Like Abade, he believes that farmers need technology to survive the advance of desertification.

But nothing very sophisticated, he says, highlighting that local producers have achieved very positive results, for example, with the protection of native vegetation, drip irrigation, fish farming and the ancient technique of cultivating crops on agricultural terraces.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The Aztecs, Incas and Mayans have already done it,” he says.

At the same time, he regrets the closure, six years ago, of a research center on desertification in Gilbués, which helped farmers implement these techniques. The state government plans to reopen it, but has not set a date.

The region also has the potential to generate solar energy, says Corado, citing the recent opening of a solar park with 2.2 million panels. Another is under construction.

With the right mix of conservation and technology, “no one can hold us back,” he says.