A thick dust storm swirling over southern Israel on Thursday accented a problem that brought more than 500 scientists, researchers and officials from over 60 countries in Jerusalem last week: the struggle against encroaching deserts, the loss of arable topsoil worldwide, and what experts call a critical need for new ways of stopping the threat.

The 3rd Drylands, Deserts and Decertification Conference was hosted, appropriately enough, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's (BGU) Blaustein Desert Research center, near Kibbutz Sede Boqer, south the Israel's largest Negev Desert city, Beersheba.

LOSING GROUND IN A WARMING WORLD

"The world is rapidly losing cropland across the planet," BGU's Prof. Alon Tal, who chaired the conference told Xinhua.

"At a time when populations are increasing and demand for food is rising, arable lands are dropping. This has been the trend for a long time, but trend doesn't need to be destiny," Tal said, referring to the efforts to stem the dry tide.

The week-long conference brought together foresters, farmers, land-management specialists and representatives from scores of governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

Experts listened and taught, trekked and learned latest techniques from colleagues of nearly every continent about how to grow more food on less and once useless land in order to feed an increasingly hungry world.

"We have the technologies, the knowledge and the strategy which are necessary to conserve soil," Tal said of the sessions at the UNESCO-backed event. "The problem is policies and dissemination of information," to areas where the problems are greatest.

One U.S. delegate who came to share her knowledge was Prof. Nina Federoff at Penn State University. The professor recently completed a three-year stint as the Science and Technology Adviser to the office of the U.S. Secretary of State and gave an address at the conference.

Federoff told Xinhua that one major issue is that mankind's crops were domesticated in a cooler climate, and said that, "we human beings are not prepared, not preparing to meet the challenge of climate change for agriculture."

She said that one solution was expanding the study and the use of genetically modified crops, ones which can thrive in tougher climates and resist disease and insect infestations, as well as decrease unwanted effects on the environment.

"We now run a very polluting agriculture, which has a very deleterious effect on the environment and on biodiversity," Federoff said.