Statistics

Drylands occupy 41 per cent of Earth’s land area and are home to more than 2 billion people - one-sixth of the world's population, among them the poorest people on earth
In developing countries, infant mortality in drylands averages about 54 children per 1,000 live births, twice as high as in non-dryland areas, and 10 times the infant mortality rate in developed countries
More than 110 countries in all climatic regions on all continents seriously affected by desertification
Total land degradation affects some 1.9 billion hectares of land worldwide
Arable land is being lost is increasing and has been estimated at 30 to 35 times the historical rate
Loss of potential productivity due to soil erosion is estimated as equivalent to some 20 million tons of grain per year
Nearly one third of the world’s cropland has been abandoned in the past 40 years because erosion has made it unproductive
Each year an additional 20 million hectares of agricultural land either becomes too degraded for crop production, or becomes lost to urban sprawl
In Africa : more than half of arable land lost
It is estimated that between 10 and 20 per cent of drylands are already degraded
More than half the world’s productive land is dryland
It is estimated that desertification and drought account for a US$42 billion annual loss in food productivity worldwide
Desertification is found to some degree on 30 per cent of irrigated lands, 47 per cent of rain-fed agricultural lands, and 73 per cent of rangelands
Annually, an estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million hectares of irrigated land, 3.5 to 4 million hectares of rain-fed agricultural land, and about 35 million hectares of rangeland lose all or part of their productivity due to land degradation
Restoring soil lost by erosion is a slow process. It can take 500 years for 2.5 cm of soil to form