Land degradation threatens dry land populations
Dry lands cover about 41 per cent of the earth’s surface. The poor people in the drylands depend mainly on rain fed agriculture and natural rangelands for their survival.
Their livelihoods are at risk due to land degradation, which is exacerbated by increasing population growth that is putting considerable pressure on fragile land resources.
Scientific iinovations
However, science-based innovations can be mobilized to help arrest land degradation. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) headquartered in Patancheru in southern India, addresses the problem of land degradation through sustainable land management (SLM) techniques.
Climate change
According to ICRISAT Director General Dr William D Dar, “Investing in SLM to control and prevent land degradation in the wider landscape is an essential and cost-effective way to deliver other global environmental benefits, such as maintenance of biodiversity, mitigation of climate change and protection of international waters.” ICRISAT has developed a ‘microdosing’ technique that involves the application of small, affordable quantities of fertilizer with the seed at planting time or as a top dressing 3 or 4 weeks after emergence.
Marketing strategies
This enhances fertilizer use efficiency and improves productivity.
The Institute is also testing two market development strategies to address constraints such as difficult access to fertilizer and credit; insufficient flow of information and training to farmers; and inappropriate policies.
Inventory credit system
In West Africa, the ‘Warrantage’ or inventory credit system aims to resolve the farmers’ capital constraint. Farmers place part of their harvest in a local storehouse in return for loans, which they use to pay debts and start various income-earning activities to tide over the long dry season.
The stored grain is sold later in the year when prices are high, and the farmer is able to repay the loan.
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