Desertification is a severe ecological issue, including the dilapidation of land in parched, semi-arid, and dry sub-damp regions.
It is caused basically by mankind activities and climatic varieties. The first step in solving any environmental problem is to be aware of the actual problem. Hence, it is essential to ascertain the level of awareness of Libyans towards desert encroachment of arable land in Libya. 500 Tripoli university students were involved in this study. Four variables were hypothesized for this study with 3 belonging to the independent variable. The frequency distribution did show that the majority of the participants were concerned about the environment and desert encroachment of arable lands in Libya. It then boils down to what the level of awareness of desert encroachment of Libyan arable lands among the age, gender, and residential location groups.

The study affirms that there exists a relationship between awareness of desertification of Libyan arable lands and university student’s age, gender, and residential location.encroachment has proven to be an environmental hazard which not only affects humans, but also affects the biodiversity in the biosphere. Some of the associated climatic conditions as a result of desertification include extreme drought, poor water condition, poor performance of agricultural crops etc. The first step in solving any environmental problems is to be aware of the actual problem (Abahussain et al., 2002),(Gunduz, et al, 2017).

Hence, it is essential to ascertain the level of awareness of Libyans towards desert encroachment of arable land in Libya. This study involved 500 students from Tripoli University. Statistical package for social science (SPSS version 21) was used for statistical analysis of the data. Sourced data were tested for their reliability using Cronbach’s alpha reliability test which showed a value of 0.856 which is accepted as the value should be ≥ 0.70.3. The variables were hypothesized for this study through 3 independent variables (age, gender and location). Frequency distributions, regression and coefficient of variance statistical analysis were used to determine the relationship between the independent and the dependent variables.

From the data analysis, it was observed that the majority of the respondents were within the age group of 18-23 years. Also, the male participants in the study are more than the female folks with percentage frequency distribution of 65.2 % and 35.8 % respectively the findings is in line with study by Benabderrahmane, and Chenchouni, (2010). It was also discovered that the majority of the participants were urban dwellers followed by rural dwellers. The frequency distribution did show that the majority of the participants were concerned about the environment and desert encroachment of arable lands in Libya. It then raises questions on what is the level of awareness of desert encroachment of Libyan arable lands among the age group, gender groups, and residential location groups. For the research questions 1, 2 and 3, the F-statistics is 2.597, 0.001 and 14.170 with significance value at 0.108, 0.000 and 0.000 respectively which indicates P < 0.5. Hence, the study affirms that there exists a relationship between awareness of desertification of Libyan arable lands and university students’ age, gender and residential location.