Increased desertification of Turkey's arable land -22 Aug 08

It used to be regarded as one of Turkey's best growing regions.

However, vast sinkholes are now appearing across what was once the country's agricultural heartland.

Drought, shrinking water levels and more thirsty crops, mean the rich arable land is literally turning to dust.

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from Konya, one of the region's where desertification of arable land is most evident.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Hoda
• Abdel-Hamid
• turkey
• desertification
• konya
• al
• jazeera
• english
• drought
• water
• bees
• land
• crops

[hablerz]

All this is down to overgrazing , water misuse by famers and over deforesting. The lack of trees creates a lack of rain, the same thing has happened all over the world - all due to human mismanagement.

[Woodie2009UK]

Perhaps they shouldn't export so much of their water.

[BloodySultan]

what the hell a nomatic Mongols/Turks knows about the taking care of the enviorement anyways?

[Aegialeus]

Another 70 million people and Turkey will suck it dry and become like the Arabian dessert.

[namniekib]

Overgrazing compacts the soil sending the surface water to the sea.Deforestation exposes the topsoil to the sun's rays causing water to evaporate quickly.

[dremkes]

They should reforest the place. It is overgrazing not global warming that is the culprit.

[chole1ana]

I find these documentaries really interesting since it shows what is really happening and also new phenomenas. keep up the good work!!!

[jakefree25]

Everything Muslims touch turns to dust, the classical Romans were better farmers than modern Turks.

[srdancer]

Okay, here's my imbecilic response:

All life is going to shrivel-up and blow-away, except the very wealthiest who will attempt to dig deep holes in the Earth where they will build monuments to themselves to live in with their water, bottled from Fiji.

[Lymantec]

whats so surprising ?