The book addresses the world problem of desertification. It presents the likely means for raising additional resources needed to implement worldwide programme to combat the problem.The United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD,1977) showed that desertification was one of the major environmental problems of the world. Its cost in human, social and economic terms is extremely high.

The Plan considered that desertification , which was causing the world to lose some 6 million hectares of productive land every year reducing the productivity of some 20 million hectars per year to a level of zero economic return and menacing the life support systems of more than 800 million people could be halted by the year 2000 if adequate resources were made available and invested in corrective measures. No solutions are yet in sight although the present crisis in Africa indicates that we are reaching a point when synergistic, and perhaps irreversible forces are coming into play and the "Time bomb of desertification" is nearing its point of explosion.