ECOLOGY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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animals move into the desert to find water
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the desert stops expanding when there is rain in the Sahel
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the soil is of poor quality and dry conditions result in even fewer crops
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people do not try to farm in the Sahel any more due to the increased rainfall
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Detailed explanation-1: -Livestock farmers suffer losses of their animals due to unavailability of enough water. This therefore has a large impact on the profit margins of producers and their livelihoods, influencing how much labour they can keep and repayment of their loans.
Detailed explanation-2: -Scant and unreliable rainfall and poor soils make the land difficult to farm, so for centuries, many people have raised livestock instead, moving their herds periodically to find fresh pastures and allow the land to recover.
Detailed explanation-3: -A massive drought had affected the Sahel, the large 5, 400-km strip that crosses Africa from west to east, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. The land was left without water and without a blade of grass, and the inhabitants of this vast area of four million km², mostly shepherds, saw all their livestock die.
Detailed explanation-4: -Originally it was believed that the drought in the Sahel primarily was caused by humans over-using natural resources in the region through overgrazing, deforestation and poor land management. In the late 1990s, climate model studies suggested that large scale climate changes were also triggers for the drought.