The Sahel - Famine and Desertification

The Sahel is an area of land south of the Sahara Desert. It stretches

from Mauritania in the west through Mali, Niger, Chad and into Eritrea
and Ethiopia. The areas in the Sahel have very high total fertility rates
(the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime) causing
the population to rise rapidly. This rising population is steadily
increasing the demand for food. In the meantime the supply of food is
also being affected because of land degradation caused by:

Deforestation
Overgrazing
Reduced rainfall
Increased temperatures

The combination of increased demand and reduced supply has

meant that many areas in Sahel have suffered from famine (food
shortages).

In Niger a lack of rainfall (rainfall varies between 2 and 85 cm in

Niger, but most falls in a 2 month period) caused a 26% decline in
crop yields in 2009. Daytime temperatures in Niger are normally over
30 degrees centigrade so evaporation rates are high. This has meant
that about half of its population of 15 million people face potential
food shortages in 2010. Niger is a poor landlocked country (GDP per
capita is about $750 per capita) where over 50% of the population are
involved in farming (subsistence farming). Increasing temperatures
and less predictable rainfall combined with deforestation and
desertification mean that Niger are likely to experience increasing
problems in the future. Niger is also experiencing rapid population
growth with total fertility of 7.4.