Farm production and range resource management

Drought and Food Security

Low and erratic precipitation is certainly the key characteristic of the drylands; and thus droughts are a critical feature of dryland areas which must be reflected in development strategies. Aspects which might be considered include food reserves, food distribution before farmers are forced to liquidate their assets, improved crop and livestock forecasting, and the development of appropriate technologies. It is, of course, not only unpredictability that causes the problem but the fact that drought periods reduce production below the already marginal levels so that subsistence itself is in jeopardy.

In this situation, food security is a paramount consideration and especially for the majority whose access to resources is limited and whose incomes are low. And although new technology may help, alone it cannot increase the stability of food production so as to guarantee food security for the poor. When droughts strike, direct intervention by government may therefore be necessary through price subsidies for basic food commodities, feeding programmes targeting specific sectors of the population, or income-generating programmes to assist the disadvantaged. To facilitate such programmes, adequate grain storage is also needed, both centrally and locally, in order to build up and maintain drought reserves and, in areas of acute risk, to accommodate external food aid. Food aid can be crucial during food emergencies, and when distribution systems are adequate and food reaches the targeted population with minimum delay, it can significantly assist the poor and disadvantaged. However, recurrent famine relief certainly indicates a need for resettlement.

General prescriptions are inappropriate - each situation needs to be evaluated on its own merits. In particular, a distinction needs to be drawn between areas where improved crop technology can improve help, over-populated areas that are beyond technological help and pastoral areas where special drought strategies apply (mobility, drought reserves of grazing and fodder, and emergency marketing of livestock in exchange for grain). Opportunities for symbiotic development between drylands and well-watered lands also need to be assessed, and early warning systems need to be established in order to anticipate impending drought and famine.

Where crop technology can help, it is most likely to be through water conservation and crop varieties (developed through a marriage of farming systems research and plant breeding) that combine water efficiency with the other attributes required for food security. The latter include disease and pest resistance both in the field and in storage and, often, the ability to provide feed for the livestock which, in marginal cropping areas, provide extra security of subsistence in the face of crop failure. Whatever other inputs and strategies are employed, active encouragement should be given to improving on-farm crop storage. Food losses, both in quantity and quality, occur at all stages of the post-harvest system. Although grain losses are often lower in the drylands than in more humid areas, they sometimes are large enough to present the opportunity of improve food security through their reduction.

Action required is as follows:

• Governments should recognize that their policies in the areas of money and credit, exchange rates, marketing and trade all impinge on food security. Governments should also recognize, in their agricultural planning and financial allocations, the special needs of the drylands for development and infrastructure for building food security, e.g., storage, access, etc.
• Drought and food strategies need to be developed appropriate to each area at risk. It is particularly important to understand the traditional coping strategies of farmers and pastoralists, and the communities should be encouraged to identify areas of need and to participate fully in the planning process.
• Needs for food aid should be minimized by development programmes that seek to increase the productivity of small farmers through better distribution of resources, including land, improved availability of credit and access to low-cost technologies and extension services, all aimed at sustainable incremental increases in production.
• Where food aid is anticipated, close collaboration is required between governments and donors in the design of food strategies, including necessary infrastructure. It is a government responsibility to ensure that food aid reaches the targeted recipients with minimum delay, but this can be assisted by the donor providing non-food resources and support to the administrative and physical infrastructure.
• Emphasis in crop research and technology should be given to varieties and cultural techniques that enhance food security by combining water efficiency with other valuable attributes, such as pest resistance and straw/stover production for animal feed.
• Early warning systems should be developed, combining remote sensing with a network of ground recording sites which take into account socio-economic as well as technological parameters.

Main responsibility lies with national authorities, but with substantial inputs from the international community in terms of food and non-food aid and in the development of early warning systems. Local communities and organizations should participate in the design, implementation and management of food strategies. There are also major opportunities for regional collaboration in developing and implementing drought strategies, including early warning systems, cross-border movement of livestock and exchange of food surpluses.

Soil and Water Conservation

Both widespread soil erosion and declining soil fertility are constraints to improving productivity of drylands. Water conservation is also an issue in the drylands, which by definition have limited rainfall for plant growth or to replenish groundwater. Moreover, soil erosion and water run-off are intimately related. The root causes of degradation and erosion are addressed through other aspects of dryland strategies; this section deals with actions specific to soil and water conservation.

Action required:

• Inventories of soil and water resources at the national level should be assured and updated as a basis for national policies, strategies and programmes in soil and water conservation. These inventories should adequately cover the drylands and should include delineation of the extent and risk of soil erosion and of high erosion risk and quantification of groundwater resources in terms of depth, quantity, quality and recharge.
• Soil conservation services should be organized so that input can be made to area and community development projects and programmes, as well as to national planning and large-scale watershed management. Emphasis should be given to farm-level inputs that provide tangible benefits to farmers through increased yield or reduced risk.
• Policies and strategies should be developed for the utilization of water resources. Particular attention should be given to policies regarding the utilization (mining) of fossil groundwater, wherever major reserves occur, to establish the use to which these are to be put and the time scale for their exploitation.
• Legislation and sanctions are often needed to control grossly degrading land use and indiscriminate or anti-social exploitation of water resources. Scarcity of water is a constraint to drylands development and controls or incentive schemes to ensure efficient use of available resources are therefore imperative, especially in respect of irrigation.
• Research and extension are needed to ensure improved efficiency of water use in irrigation schemes, particularly in the case of small-scale irrigation drawing on limited water sources. Apart from water-efficient crop varieties, the use of water-saving irrigation technologies should be encouraged. Attention also needs to be given to the environmental problems associated with irrigation (alkalinity and salinity) and the social problems of newly setted irrigation schemes.
• In the drylands generally, pre-development studies and farming systems development should give specific attention to soil and water conservation and the maintenance of soil fertility, through tillage systems, water harvesting, agroforestry, crop rotations and the increased use of manure.

Main responsibility lies with national governments, though few countries will be able to undertake the required programmes without the assistance of external agencies and the donor community. Regional institutions can also help with training and information exchange.

Livestock and Range Resource Management

Overgrazing is a widespread constraint to the sustainable development of drylands, requiring inputs to improve animal husbandry, livestock off-take and the integration of grazing control with water development. However, overgrazing is but a syndrome, and the true causes are embedded in the nature of pastoral livestock production. The central issue, therefore, is how to increase the reliability and output of livestock production systems, including enhancing forage production by preventing unnecessary grass fires and applying phosphatic fertilizers to legumes, while also avoiding or correcting land degradation.

In practice, different strategies are needed for different livestock production systems (with different ecologies and/or socio-political systems). Clearly, crop-livestock production systems offer opportunities for producing forage (in the form of straw and stover as well as catch crops and planted pasture) that are lacking in pastoral systems. Rarely is the seeding or fertilizing of rangeland an attractive development option, and reliance has to be placed instead on making the most of natural plant growth. This includes maintaining mobility, and protecting pasture stands from unwanted fire. Sometimes, however, fire can be a useful tool for thinning unwanted bush and controlling tsetse flies, provided it is planned within a grazing rotation.

Actions required include, first, the adoption of a farming systems approach and, second, ensuring local organizations have management responsibility. Development planning can then proceed with reference to the following interventions. Sedentarization of pastoralists is not included because anything that restricts mobility, at least in the arid zone, is invariably detrimental to livestock, rangeland and family security.

• Drought and dry season feed reserves are a priority in terms of livestock production, but can cause overstocking and destruction of rangeland if purchased feed is used to maintain excessive grazing pressure on rangeland. Reserves are therefore best organized on the basis of what can be produced within the one management unit. Government subsidies on feed brought into drylands are especially destructive and are best avoided.
• Expansion of grazing area is rarely an available option, except where land is under-utilized for lack of water or presence of tsetse flies. Such areas are strategically very important but should be opened to grazing only when control of land use is assured.
• Livestock marketing is an important option for both increasing returns to producers and reducing grazing pressure. Special arrangements should be made for marketing animals during drought, ideally before animals lose too much condition and value. Improved marketing is also one means of altering the relative profitability of different livestock species or breeds, and thus encouraging a particular type of enterprise.
• Veterinary services are a necessary adjunct to marketing and, if available where and when required, make it possible for pastoralists to secure reliable subsistence from a smaller number of animals. However, the service does need to be reliable and available locally. To the extent possible, livestock owners should be assisted to undertake their own routine animal health care.
• Grazing management can also be helpful to both production and rangeland. Traditional management systems, effective in the past, are breaking down, and need to be reinstated or revised. Pastoral organizations should be established to foster local management capability and responsibility, but where grazing rights are disputed government may need to intervene. Management systems should be kept as simple as possible initially, and full use should be made of local knowledge in devising management plans. A division into grazing blocks, and formal rotational grazing, are likely to come sooner rather than later where fire control or periodic burning for bush-control is required.
• Technical interventions of a more specific nature should be withheld until the institutional framework to apply and maintain them has been established. Promising technologies need to be tested through farming systems research and development before being extended. The one exception, for implementation on a trial and error basis, is the establishment of fuel and forage woodlots. Both breed improvement and further water development should be withheld until mechanisms are in place to ensure feed supply and local grazing control.

Main responsibility lies with national authorities to secure the planning studies required. Community and producer participation should be ensured and the private sector should be encouraged to take the lead in livestock marketing and banking systems for producers. Bilateral and international agencies can help in some of the design work and in advising on specific components of development.

Fuel and Agro-Forestry

Shortages of fuelwood and forage, seasonally, are endemic in the drylands, and often lead to strategy elements such as planting fuelwood and supplementary forage, promoting phosphatic fertilizer use on legumes and organising fire control measures.

Fuelwood remains the principal source of energy for most of the world's rural poor and for many urban dwellers as well. It comprises some 85 percent of the wood used in developing countries and accounts for more than three quarters of total energy consumption in the poorest countries. In the drylands, demand for fuelwood is increasing and supply is rapidly diminishing, with many areas (e.g., North Africa) having already reached a deficit situation. The continuing process of removal of trees and shrubs is accelerating land degradation.

Attempts to reduce household consumption of fuelwood have met with only limited success and will continue to do so until more attractive fuel-saving devices are available and their use is extended to the rural community by women for use by women.

Forestry can play other important roles in the drylands, in the control of soil erosion, ameliorating the environment for food production through shelter belts and windbreaks, in contributing feed for livestock and supplementing the diet of the rural population, both directly in the form of fruits, nuts and leaves, and indirectly through honey and wildlife. Opportunities to benefit from these other roles need to be explored through an expanded programme of agro-forestry research, adapted to different climates and farming systems.

Agro-forestry should be seen as an integral part of future drylands development, at least in the semi-arid zone where it is relatively easy to establish trees. Although the long-term benefits could be considerable, its adoption will require readily available and attractive options, as there could be heavy investment necessary at farm level for initial inputs. In the case of community plantings there is a clear need for specification of ownership rights.

Action required includes the following:

• The important role of dryland forestry in improving agricultural and animal production, and in providing direct economic benefits to local communities, should be recognized at the national level by integrating tree planting and agro-forestry in rural research and development programmes.
• To improve awareness and acceptance, there should be increased emphasis on educational and extension programmes which highlight the importance of forestry in farming and pastoral systems. It is also necessary to devise agro-forestry packages appropriate to different farming and pastoral systems.
• Training of foresters and technicians should cover agro-forestry, and training institutes should include programmes relevant to the particular needs of drylands.
• Community forestry (e.g., village woodlots) should be encouraged by national governments but managed by the local communities with clear specification as to ownership. Farm forestry could be assisted by government subsidies in the establishment phase and by increased extension activity, emphasizing nursery and tree planting skills.
• Substantial savings in the use of fuel wood can be achieved by using more efficient fuel stoves or alternative energy sources such as solar cookers. Action is needed to encourage and demonstrate their use, preferably by women extension workers, and to encourage local manufacture as an additional local industry.

Main responsibility lies with the national governments, but international agencies can play an important role in ensuring that, in any externally funded development programme, agricultural systems and forestry are integrated and that adequate training and extension is available.