What causes desertification in impoverished developing nations? Trade policies. The very nations who suffer from desertification are forced to indulge in intensive cultivation of cash crops in order to earn foreign exchange through export and hence lose out on the benefits of growing food crops. South African nations like Somalia, Uganda, Sudan and Ghana besides others reflect the situation in which commercialisation of agriculture has destroyed the productivity of farmland. Yet these nations have been forced to sell their goods in the world market at very low prices. Hence, there emerges a vicious circle of trade promoting poverty and desertification.