World Day To Combat Desertification And Drought and The Importance Of Mushrooms

Introduction

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

Every year on 17th June, the world comes together for Desertification and Drought Day to raise awareness on the growing crisis of land droughts, desertification and land erosion. Initiated by the United Nations, this day not only raises awareness to these issues but also allows us to work on combating these threats that affect our ecosystems.

Theme of 2025

The theme of 2025 is “Restore the land. Unlock the opportunities,” tells us about the worldwide struggle of restoring 1.5 hectares of land that have faced drought and desertification by 2030 and to look beyond normal solutions to save our lands that contribute to the environment, climate, our food security, and millions of livelihoods.

So How Do Droughts And Desertification Affect Us?

Droughts

Droughts occur when the land undergoes evaporation and transpiration at a high rate, leaving it all dry and cracked, and creating land that is not capable of agriculture or living. This process of drought formation has become more common and intense due to the rising temperatures of the climate.

Desertification

Desertification refers to when a thriving land is gradually converted into a desert that can no longer support families and their livelihoods. Traditional methods of farming that have no regard for sustainability, deforestation, global warming, overgrazing are all reasons that contribute to and accelerate droughts and deforestation. The acceleration of this leads to more severe effects in our society such as migration, loss of livelihoods, poverty and lack of food resources.

The Hidden Strength of Fungi

Fungi’s Role in Ecosystems

As we all know, fungi are master decomposers that also connect our ecosystems together with networks of mycelium. Not only do they connect our ecosystems, but they also distribute information and nutrients throughout that help forests and environments to adapt and survive environmental changes. Being able to protect and revive our lands does not only start from growing plants and trees and stopping soil erosion and deforestation, it begins from healing and treatment of the soil itself.

The Ecosystem’s Engineers That Are Allies To Sustainability and Land Protection

Fungi as Decomposers

Fungi are nature’s decomposers that help to break down all types of organic matter into nutrients and minerals that are essential for plants and trees for their growth. Along with forming nutrient networks, fungi help to bind the soil together, increase water capacity, improve soil structure, and composition with the help of substances like glomalin, that is crucial for restoring desert lands as well as maintaining healthy soil for fertile lands.

Mycorrhizal Fungi

As allies to land protection, a key type of fungi, known as mycorrhizal fungi, plays a huge role in preventing desertification and drought formation. They form symbiotic relationships with trees and plant roots, where they help to absorb nutrients, especially when drought conditions are present.

Arbuscular Mycorrhiza

This type of fungi contains something known as arbuscular mycorrhiza that enhances the plant’s resistance and adaptability to drought by helping the plant roots reach underground water reservoirs. This mycorrhiza present in this fungus also triggers genetic and cultural changes to enhance drought resilience.

Soil Recovery and Climate Benefits

Mycorrhizal fungi also aid in soil recovery when deforestation or wildfire occurs, ensuring plant growth and soil infertility prevention. This fungi also aids against climate change as it helps forests absorb carbon dioxide more efficiently, which improves oxygen production as well as reduces the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

BETi’s Contributions

Biotech Era Technologies India (BETi), located in Indore India, is at the forefront of promoting sustainable agriculture through mushroom cultivation. By providing high-quality mushroom spawn and ready-to-use cultivation kits, BETi enables farmers to adopt eco-friendly practices that improve soil fertility and reduce chemical dependency reliance on chemical inputs. Their training programs and consultancy services on mushroom cultivation farming further empower communities to combat land degradation by integrating fungal fungi-based solutions into agricultural practices.

Restoration of Lands and Their Success Stories:

Fungi in Land Restoration

Incorporating fungi into land restoration gives us a sustainable and long-term strategy that shall help us with the prevention of land desertification as well as ensure land fertility and health is maintained. Using fungi can aid in soil recovery, enhance water capacity as well as aidconcern in in the reproduction of new plants. They also help with sustainable agriculture and protecting fungal systems in forests as they act as biofertilizers, minimize soil disturbance and reduce chemical use reliance on chemicals.

Success Stories

In China, the restoration projects involved using mycorrhizal fungi to solve the land degradation issue by and improving improve soil fertility in one of the most eroded land areas in China, namely the Loess Plateau.
In Africa, fungi are used as biofertilizers in agriculture that reduces the farmers’ reliance on chemical use of chemicals as well as improving improve soil quality. This helps preventing in prevent desertification and therefore protects the land livelihoods of farmers.
In Singapore, the main cities have used are using soil containing healthy fungi for for parks and gardens to improve plant survival during dry conditions in adverse conditions during the summer.

Conclusion:

Addressing Global Challenges

Droughts and Desertification have caused major issues in food scarcity, poverty and livelihoods of people and have affected the health of our planet severely. It is now time to recognize our mistakes and take action by using sustainable solutions such as the use of fungi to restore our degraded lands, to slowly improve climate conditions and to create a more sustainable and green future.

BETi’s Call to Action

On this World’s Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, we at BETi invite urge you to join our efforts to understand this natural solution to desertification and to help protect and conserve our planet, empower farmers to build on their traditional practices methods using scientific methods, and practice sustainable and green efforts!