Chapter 1 - Introduction

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Origin, objectives and constraints
Background to the South Asia region
Arrangement of the report

Origin, objectives and constraints

Origin of the study

This study originated in Resolution Number 1991/97 of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, passed at its 32nd plenary meeting on 26th July 1991, entitled:

Combating aridity, soil erosion, salinity, water-logging, desertification and the effects of drought in South Asia.

This begins by recalling a General Assembly resolution of 1989 which stressed the imperative need to address the problem of desertification. It notes that South Asia is one of the most populous regions of the world, and that it contains significant areas subject to soil erosion, salinity and other kind of degradation, "which affect the rives of millions of peoples and the entire environment of the region".

The Resolution then:

"Requests the Secretary-General, in close collaboration with the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme... [and other organizations]...to undertake a study...to assess the extent of this problem and its effects on the peoples of the region, and to provide a framework for national and international cooperative efforts...to tackle this problem in its physical and human dimensions, and to submit the study to the Economic and Social Council in 1992."

Consultations were held between UNEP, UNDP, FAO and ESCAP¹, leading to the preparation of draft outline and work plan for the study. This latter made clear that the focus was to be on the problem of land de gradation, and the human impacts on natural resources which reduce their productive capacity.

FAO was selected as the Executing Agency. A Project Document was drawn up as Project Number RAS/92/560/A/01/12, with a duration of four months, entitled Study of land degradation in South Asia. This defines South Asia for the purpose of the study as including eight countries of the ESCAP region: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Data was to be made available from sources of UNDP, UNEP, FAO, ESCAP, the World Bank, UNCED, and by means of limited visits to selected countries of the region. The project document further sets out the outputs and objectives.

Objectives

The immediate objective of the project is to undertake a comprehensive study on combating aridity, soil erosion, salinity, waterlogging, desertification and the effects of drought in South Asia, for submission to the Secretary General of the United Nations in response to ECOSOC Resolution 1991/97.

The contents specified for the report constitute the objectives of the study. These are to review, analyse and summarize:

1. The statue of land degradation in South Asia.
2. The causes of land degradation, and its effects on the people of the region.
3. Existing institutions and current national and international cooperative programmes to combat land degradation.
4. To suggest a framework for strengthening national and international cooperative efforts to tackle land degradation in its physical and human dimensions, at national, regional and international levers.

In carrying out the study, an attempt has been made to give equal attention to the first two of these objectives: the statue, meaning the nature, extent and severity, of land degradation; and its effects, social and economic, upon the people.

Constraints

The range of material to be covered is vast and the time available short, less than six person-months. It was therefore necessary to base the study entirely on existing publications and reports, supplemented by discussions with staff members of national and international institutions.

Over 200 publications and reports based on the region were consulted. Two were of fundamental importance. Extensive use was made of a recent comprehensive and primary study, the Global assessment of land degradation (GLASOD) (Oldeman et al., 1990; UNEP, 1992a). Besides the published maps and data, the organizations responsible, UNEP and ISRIC, made available primary data for the region. The second starting point was the report of the FAO/RAPA consultation, Environmental issues in land and water development (FAO/RAPA, 1992). This includes a regional review (Dent, 1992) and country papers on Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The study was based on the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAPA), Bangkok. Time shortage and political conditions placed constraints on field visits. Short visits were made to five countries of the region: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to conduct interviews with staff of organizations engaged in research into land degradation and efforts to combat its effects. Discussions were also held with staff of the World Bank and the World Resources Institute, Washington DC. Publications were consulted in the FAO Library, Rome, and the FAO and United Nations Libraries, Bangkok.

It should be emphasized that the time and human resources available to carry out this study were extremely limited in comparison with the magnitude of the task to be carried out. Consequently, the results should be regarded as provisional and subject to modification. A call for further and more detailed studies is made in the recommendations.

Background to the South Asia region

Land and population

Eight countries are included in the region (Figure 1):

Throughout this study, these eight countries are called the South Asian region or, in short, the region.

The region has a land area of 641 M ha and a population (1990) of 1200 million (Tables 1 and 2). The agricultural population is 768 million, 61 % of the total. The area of cropland is 227 M ha, of pasture 94 M ha, and thus of cropland and pasture together, here called agricultural land, 321 M ha.

These bare statistics indicate three basic characteristics of the region: the large total population, high density in relation to land resources, and large proportion of total land under agricultural use. Over 22% of the world's agricultural population live on just under 5% of its land area; whilst almost exactly 50% of the total land is under agricultural use, a far higher proportion than for the world as a whole.

India has 46% of the land area of the region but 71% of its population. Iran is the next largest country in terms of area, but Pakistan and Bangladesh have the second and third largest populations.

These high agricultural population densities result in low availability of land. On average, there are 0.31 ha of cropland per capita, 0.13 ha of pasture, or a total of 0.44 ha of agricultural land per capita. With the possible exception of Bhutan, for which data are uncertain, Bangladesh has the highest agricultural population density, with 0.12 ha of agricultural land per capita.

The problems which arise from this situation are becoming more severe through population increase, which for the region as a whole averages 2.39% per year. The 1990 population of 1200 million will have become some 1265 million by 1993. Despite a growth of urbanization in relative terms, the agricultural population is increasing at some 1.7% per year.

Little or no expansion of cropland is taking place, and opportunities for expansion of the irrigated area are limited. Thus, the area of cropland will have fallen from 0.31 to about 0.29 ha per capita agricultural population in the three years 1990-1993.

Figure 1 - South Asia region. 90-day LGP = 90-day length of growing period {FAO, 1982)

TABLE 1
Land use in South Asia, 1990

Source: RAPA (1992).
* FAO Production Yearbook, Vol. 45, 1991.

TABLE 2
Land and population in South Asia, 1990

Source: RAPA (1992); FAO Production Yearbook, Vol. 45, 1991.
¹ Agricultural land = Cropland plus permanent pasture.
² Cropland = Arable and permanent crops.

Results from the FAO study of population supporting capacities serve to emphasize the special position of the region (FAO, 1982). Even in 1975, the actual populations exceeded the capacity of land to support them at a low lever of inputs for six of the eight countries, whilst Pakistan was close to this limit. Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Iran were close to the limits for population supporting capacity at an intermediate input lever, and were projected to exceed these at their estimated population levers in the year 2000.

This is the basic situation in the region: a large and growing population pressing upon an area of land which offers little opportunity for further expansion. As will be shown, the problems which arise from this position are now being aggravated by a decline in the land resource base through degradation.

Environment

A brief summary of some major features of the physical environment of the region serves two purposes. First, it indicates some climatic, landform and soil features which give rise to natural hazards of degradation, such as steep slopes and rainfall of high intensity. Secondly, it is the basis for the major contrasts in the types of land degradation found in different parts of the region.

Only an outline is given. Further details will be found in reports of the agro-ecological zones study (FAO, 1978-80), and in publications for individual countries listed in the references. Additional sources are given in an annotated bibliography, 1993 Directory of Country Environmental Studies (World Resources Institute, 1992).

Climate Four of the eight countries - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka - have predominantly humid climates, whilst three, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, have predominantly dry climates. India lies across this major climatic divide, humid or subhumid over some 75% of its area, semi-arid to aria in the north-western quarter. The fine of the 90-day growing period serves to demarcate the boundary between these two zones (FAO, 1982).

This broad climatic grouping is here used as the basis for summarizing land degradation on a regional scale. India is divided into "India, dry region" and "India, humid region", separated by the fine marking a 90-day growing period. Two climatic zones are employed (Figure 1):

Two climatic features lead to high natural hazards of degradation. First, the rainfall of the humid zone is monsoonal in character, falling in limited periods of the year and often with high intensity, giving a high liability to water erosion. Secondly, rainfall in the dry zone is not only low but highly variable, leading to recurrent droughts and the consequences for wind erosion and desertification.

Landform Major contrasts in the statue of land degradation also originate from the three major physiographic regions which occupy the region:

• The mountain belt of the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and associated mountain area of Iran. This belt stretches along the whole northern border of the region, including parts of all countries except Sri Lanka.
• The alluvial plains of the Indus and Ganges river systems of India and Pakistan, with which may be grouped the interior basins of Iran.
• The uplands of the Deccan of India, together with the central hill massif of Sri Lanka.

The nature of the river systems in the northern part of the region is of special significance. These originate in the snows and high rainfall areas of the mountain belt, from which they flow across the alluvial plains. This offers a major resource for agriculture, but at the same time, presents specific problems of water management.

The steep slopes of the mountain belt lead to high hazard of soil erosion by water, whilst in association with the monsoonal rainfall, this hazard is also considerable in the uplands. The alluvial plains give rise to special problems associated with management of their rivers and groundwater resources.

Soils Because of the range of climatic, geological and physiographic conditions, virtually all of the major soil types of tropical areas occur in the region, together with some characteristic of subtropical and mountain zones. Strongly leached ferralsols and acrisols are widespread in the humid zone, whilst the volcanic lavas of the western Deccan carry an extensive area of vertisols (black, cracking clays). In the more humid parts of the alluvial plains, cambisols and fluvisols (alluvial soils) are extensive. The dry zone includes large areas of calcisols and fluvisols, and in Iran, naturally occurring solonchaks (saline soils).

Of special relevance is the large extent of what have been termed problem soils, those which present special problems for agricultural use. In a recent review, eleven types of problems soils were identified, with a combined extent of over 80% of the land area of the region (Dent, 1990). Areas of problem soils are also called 'fragile lands', meaning that they have a high degradation hazard if not carefully managed. Parts of them have also been called 'marginal lands', meaning that they lie close to the margin for sustainable agricultural use.

Each type of problem soil leads to specific hazards for degradation. In terms of area covered, the most widespread problems are steeply sloping land, dry land, and land with severe fertility limitations (Dent, 1990, p. 67).

Vegetation A high proportion of the humid zone was once covered with forest, but because of the long period of habitation by the ancient civilizations of the region, large areas of this would already have been cleared at least a thousand years ego. The forest which remains is concentrated in the mountain and hill areas, where it constitutes a major natural resource, protecting the slopes from erosion and stabilizing the flow of rivers. Deforestation of these areas is now widespread, being at the same time a form of land degradation in itself and a cause of other types of degradation.

The dry zone is occupied by various types of open woodland and grassland. Because of the limited opportunities for cultivation, these vegetation formations constitute a major resource for land use in the zone. As discussed below, this resource has been greatly reduced by degradation, both of the woody and herbaceous components of the vegetation.

Irrigation systems

Although not forming part of the natural environment, irrigation systems have been widely developed in the region, such that they now make a major contribution to its land resources. Four types of systems may be distinguished, each presenting different problems of management and hazards of de gradation :

1. The large reservoir-and-canal based systems of the alluvial plains of the Indus and Ganges.
2. Areas of groundwater irrigation on these same plains, originally from shallow hand-constructed wells, now mainly from power-driven tubewells.
3. The varied systems of the Deccan uplands and Sri Lanka, including those based on major reservoirs, small earth dams ('tanks'), and wells. In Sri Lanka, some of these systems are of ancient origin, now rehabilitated.
4. The complex systems found in Iran and Afghanistan, including the ancient method using underground charnels ('qanats').

Management of the surface and groundwater resources of these irrigation systems has led to extensive problems, particularly waterlogging and salinization.

Arrangement of the report

Following this introduction, the Report can be grouped into four parts, corresponding to the objectives of the study.

Objective 1:
The statue of land degradation: Chapters 2-5

Objective 2:The causes and consequences of land de gradation: Chapters 6-8

Objective 3:
Institutions to combat degradation: Chapter 9

Objective 4:
Conclusions, and proposals for strengthening efforts to combat land de gradation: Chapter 10