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THE CAUSES OF LAND MISUSE RANGE FROM INAPPROPRIATE LAND TENURE SYSTEMS TO LACK OF FARM INPUTS. SOLUTIONS MAY MEAN CHANGING AGRICULTURAL POLICIES, INTRODUCING NEW TECHNOLOGIES OR EVEN RELOCATING FARMERS ON NEW LAND
Land degradation is caused primarily by the misuse of land. It follows that an examination of the causes of misuse is essential if lasting solutions to continent-wide degradation are to be found.
Evaluating land resources
Even where information is already available, particularly about soils and climate, other aspects may call for surveys and inventories to be made (see box).
It is at this stage that land-use planning comes into its own. Once sufficient data have been accumulated, it becomes possible to identify areas vulnerable to degradation. These may be priority areas for land rehabilitation. The way is then open to what may be the most important step in the whole analysis - an investigation into the reasons why land is being misused in these areas.
Identifying the causes of land misuse
The most difficult but most important step in the whole process is to identify factors that can be manipulated by government to reverse the process of land degradation and improve land use. A variety of causes may be identified: growing the wrong crop on the wrong land; the land tenure system; the pricing structure for agricultural products; subsidies; incentives; taxes; or even outmoded laws or social customs. Governments may find it difficult to remove some constraints and changes may have to be phased in over a period of time. However, even in the worst situation, where none of the basic changes necessary to overcome the basic problem can be made, it is important that the reasons for the problems be understood. Failure to do so can waste a great deal of time, effort and money.
Improving land use: the options
On the other hand, if governments understand why land degradation is occurring, it may be possible to introduce changes gradually and inexpensively into the agricultural system that will encourage farmers to take up more productive and sustainable forms of land use.
At best, this information will illuminate the strategies required to initiate a new conservation programme. At worst it will prevent countries embarking on new schemes which, because they treat the symptoms and not the causes, are likely to fail. Either way, the results will be beneficial and the options open to countries threatened with large-scale degradation will be clarified.
Implementing the improvements
Reforming agricultural strategies
Agricultural policies have a profound effect on land-use patterns. Decisions to subsidize the production of certain crops or inputs are, of course, intended to alter land-use patterns and to encourage producers to make their contributions in areas where there is an obvious national need. Thus countries with foreign exchange shortages seek to encourage the production of cash crops; those where food imports are high tend to encourage the production of food crops; but where powdered milk or other dairy products, for example, are available cheaply as a result of surpluses in developed countries, dairy production is discouraged.
These and other measures such as agricultural import restrictions and export subsidies must be carefully analysed to clarify their effects on land-use patterns and rates of degradation. Where the effects are detrimental to conservation, alternative agricultural strategies must be sought.
Land resource data bases and land-use planning Reliable data on land resources - including soils, climate, vegetation and topography - are needed if sound land-use and conservation policies are to he developed. Some of these data are more widely available than is generally realized. However, the data are usually fragmented, of different scales and reliability and are stored in different ministries, libraries and universities. The first major task is to find out what data are available and where they are located. The second is to gather existing data together, arrange them in a usable form, assess their utility and decide what additional data still need to be gathered. Even countries which have already carried out a land resources data survey are likely to find that more data of one kind or another are needed. With computers becoming more readily available and easier to use, it is now possible for any country to establish its own Geographic Information System (GIS) for the assembly, storage and processing of natural resources data. With such a system all relevant data can be stored in one place, added to as more and better data become available and quickly processed into usable forms. All countries should consider establishing their own GIS. Other more traditional systems of gathering, compiling, storing and processing natural resources data should not be overlooked. As a minimum, each country should establish a small office or operations centre which is given responsibility for recording what relevant data are available and where they may be located. When
sufficient data have been accumulated, they can be used
in land-use planning exercises to identify priority areas
for land rehabilitation. These areas can then be examined
more intensively and strategies developed to improve
land-use patterns. |
Introducing new technologies
The introduction of new technologies can radically change land use. Better equipment, improved fertilizers and new strains of crops and grasses can all make major contributions. It is now thought, for example, that Vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) could be invaluable in soil and moisture conservation. The grass, a fire-resistant perennial that grows well in both humid and arid climates, can be planted as a contour hedge to stop erosion and improve water conservation. World Bank studies indicate that it could be used for planting along contours, field boundaries, river banks, gully sides and other waste areas.
New approaches to conservation include techniques that may have been long neglected. Farmers in Burkina Faso, for example, have been taught to construct micro-catchments round trees planted for the protection of sloping land and fuelwood. Upland rice yields of 1 200 kg/ha were obtained in these micro-catchments, with yields doubling during a period when average annual rainfall halved. Elsewhere farmers have made good returns from agroforestry techniques such as alley cropping. Farmers need little persuading to adopt technologies that promise immediate benefits such as these.
Conservation and development: how Lesotho is tackling the problem how Lesotho is tackling the problem The government of Lesotho has decided to tackle the country's twin problems of severe erosion and lack of agricultural development through a programme of watershed development. In 1987 FAO was requested to help develop a strategy for this programme. A small team of consultants and national specialists reviewed the problems and the country's past experiences in the area, and then developed a strategy based on the following elements:
Conservation and development: how Lesotho is tackling the problem Coordination of funding and donor agencies This
framework of national, regional and community planning
should provide the basis for donor activities. Future
donor projects and inputs would be the components of an
agreed and established long-term programme of soil
conservation, whether they were intended to support
activities at national, district or community levels.
This would give donors a better sense of direction and
purpose, and would lead to the more effective use of both
government and donor resources. |
Encouraging the use of farm inputs
In more than 85 percent of African countries, mineral-fertilizer use is still below 10 kg/ha/annum, in spite of thousands of trials showing that yields can be doubled or trebled by increasing fertilizer usage.
Schemes that encourage the use of farm inputs such as fertilizer, new crop and livestock varieties, integrated pest control measures and mechanization tend to increase production sharply. Increased production takes the pressure off small-scale farmers to use their land ever more intensively. This reduces the chance of the land being misused or the need to cultivate marginal land. Particular attention is being paid to the use of nitrogen-fixing species to increase fertility, and organic matter as an alternative or supplement to the use of mineral fertilizer.
Land tenure
Systems of land tenure often cause the misuse of land, but they are more difficult to alter. An example from East Africa, however, shows how effective a relatively simple legal change can be in improving land use.
Where traditional and secure land tenure systems held sway among the Chaga farmers on Mount Kiliminjaro, trees were planted and soil protected. On Mount Kenya, however, insecurity of tenure led farmers to dig ditches to delineate their plots and to attempt to establish ownership. These ditches, which served as run-off drains, led to severe erosion and gully formation. Huge conservation projects failed to halt the degradation that ensued. Yet today the region is terraced, hedges mark land boundaries, and grassed bunds have been built to reduce erosion.
One reason was that Kenya invested in a land tenure reform programme that vested secure rights in the small farmer. Another was that the courts decided not to accept ditch boundaries as proof of property delineation.
Diversifying rural incomes
One effective way of taking pressure off over-cultivated land is to provide rural populations with jobs and incomes that depend less directly on soil cultivation. In recent years many small-scale projects have shown that rural populations can be successfully provided with alternative incomes through the introduction of activities such as poultry breeding, honey production and fabrication of simple furniture and household utensils from locally available materials.
Relocating land users
Where all else fails, consideration must sometimes be given to relocating land users to areas where degradation is less severe and yields potentially higher. Relocation can bring eventual benefits to those who are moved, as well as new life to the land they have left. Relocation schemes need to be voluntary but should be backed by attractive economic incentives.
There are several areas in Africa where relocation may become necessary. An FAO assessment mission to Ethiopia's central highland area in 1983 reported: "Clearly the land has a finite human carrying capacity... it is doubtful that technology can both catch up and stay ahead of current population growth in the highlands and adequately provide for basic human needs and environmental stabilization. This is an inescapable reality."
Improving land use in Niger's Keita Valley: marrying old and new technologies Central southern Niger is badly affected by desertification. In the Keita Valley, where the desert gives way to farmland, the cultures of the nomadic Tuaregs and the settled Hausa farmers meet But population pressures have had dramatic effects on the valley's landscape: less than one-fifth of the province's land is currently cultivable, the rest having been reduced to desert and degraded rangeland. Good land has become scarce and plots fragmented. Trees and scrub have been cut down, leaving the soil exposed to sun, wind and water. When rains do come, they pour down the valley's slopes, carrying away topsoil and the villagers' fields and crops. Now, however, an imaginative integrated rural development project is helping redress the balance. Carried out by the government of Niger with help from FAO and an Italian trust fund, the project depends on marrying traditional production systems with modern technology. The people of Keita are themselves carrying out the work, checking the results, and maintaining the improvements. The basic technology involved is that of ´´water harvesting" to ensure that water stays in the soil where it falls, rather than running off it to wreak damage elsewhere. The
end result is that trees and crop now grow where a few
years ago there were only dunes and rocks. And a new
community spirit has been born among the people of the
Keita Valley. |
