The book aims at defining, explaining and offering suggestions on land degradation in agricultural and forest areas worldwide. It presented the American experience of desertification in the 1930s and the consequent land management reform undertaken by the government. Noting that 24 billion tons of topsoil are lost every year due to desertification, the book presents lessons learned in early warning, land and water management.The publication attempts to define, explain, and offer suggestions about how to deal with the insidious process of land degradation in agricultural and forest areas worldwide that is known as desertification.

Although some aspects are hidden from human sight, desertification affects everybody on the planet by robbing global soil of nutrients, degrading agricultural production, spreading dust throughout the globe, contaminating water, and making it far more difficult to remedy poverty and hunger.

Some of the causes are natural cycles of weather; some relate to human population increase and farming practices. However, it is clear from many historical and contemporary examples that enlightened land management can mitigate or remedy the problem. "A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself." -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt