Based on:
Biblical movies where the Middle East is fertile?
Is it true that the deserts in North Africa and the Middle East were much greener in the past? Ideally I’d like to see maps showing how green they probably were otherwise a detailed description would be good.
Over farming isn’t going to make it stop raining in a given area.
I’m guessing the word desrtification doesn’t mean “to turn into a desert” but rather something more along the lines of “the area became deserted” as in barren.
You’ll notice, in the linked article there’s a line that reads “Reforestation gets at one of the root causes of desertification and isn’t just a treatment of the symptoms. Environmental organizations[27] work in places where deforestation and desertification are contributing to extreme poverty. There they focus primarily on educating the local population about the dangers of deforestation and sometimes employ them to grow seedlings, which they transfer to severely deforested areas during the rainy season.”
Are there typically ‘rainy seasons’ in deserts?
No, desertification means “turning into a desert.” It’s common in arid areas, especially around the margins of a desert. It’s a complex process that can have both anthropogenic and natural causes. Contrary to your assertion, changes in land use (especially deforestation, which is common to open up land for agriculture) do indeed affect the local water cycle, and can change precipitation patterns.
Yeah it can be reversed (to some degree?) but I’m asking if places were greener than they were in the past compared to when they were at their worst.
No, but it can drain the soil of nutrients and salt up the soil. Or render it vulnerable to being simply blown away by the wind because the pre-farmland ground cover is gone; remember the Dust Bowl.
Map of rainfall in the Sahel going back 10,000 years
Tunisia used to be known as the Bread Basket of Africa in Roman times. These days, not so much.
Modern farming techniques have made farmlands of what was once desert semi desert areas. The sub continent and Israel are a couple of examples. Iran OTH never really recovered from the Mongols and Tamerlane destroying the irrigation system, while Iraq only reached pre 1258 level food production in the 1970’s.
If memory serves, some researchers have contended that recent climate shifts have caused some regreening around the edges of the Sahara.