Post on 11-Jan-2016
Mohamed A. M. AhmedSocial, Economic and Policy Research
ProgramICARDA
Dryland Degradation and Restoration Drylands occupy 41% of earth’s
land area
Hold 1/3 of the world population
Nearly 1.9% of the total 3392 Mha of degraded lands worldwide
Global annual loss of 75 billion tons of soil costs (@ US$3 / ton of soil for nutrients and US$2 /ton of soil & water).
Losses about US$400 billion/ year
US$70 per person/ year
Land degradation is decline in land quality or productivity
A result of natural or anthropic factors
Results from a mismatch between land quality and land use
Land Degradation Irrigation induced-erosion and faulty tillage
Rate of land degradation determined by the agents/ causes of LD. Initially degradation ‘creeps’ slowly A collector draining into river-
• Wind erosion • Water erosion• Salinization/waterlogging • Degradation- range/pastures• Forest land degradation
•Carbon-losses •Excessive Tillage •Overgrazing •Deforestation •Erosion•Loss of covers•Inappropriate Practices
Forms
•Declining soil fertility & crop yields•Reduced biodiversity•Declining factor productivity•Declining livestock productivity•Escalating prod/rehabilitation costs•Greenhouse Gas emissions•Low farm incomes- livelihoods•Loss of labor
Impact
Causes
Desertification spiral is driven by interlinked biophysical and socio-economic factors- feeding each other.
Cause – Effect Relations of Land Degradation
Estimates of Land Degradation Estimates of the global extent (in million km2) of land degradation (Oldeman, 1994).
Type Light ModerateStrong +
extremeTotal
Water erosion 3.43 5.27 2.24 10.94
Wind erosion 2.69 2.54 0.26 5.49
Chemical degradation 0.93 1.03 0.43 2.39
Physical degradation 0.44 0.27 0.12 0.83
Total 7.49 9.11 3.05 19.65
Land Degradation (LD)
Biophysical: Land use, land management,
tillage methods, climate changes and climatic variability etc.)
Socioeconomic: Land tenure, marketing,
institutional support, income sources, input Infra-structure, subsidies and Value chains
Political: Incentives, pricing policies,,
political stability
(Lal, 1994).
Land degradation is a biophysical processdriven by socioeconomic and political causes.
Drivers of Landuse Changes Demographic pressures
Economic and policy swings
Competition for water
Soil fertility and land degradation
Climate changes
Food, fiber, fuel, fodder needs
Technological changes
Land use policy prescriptions
The OASIS ChallengeOASIS supports 5 major dimensions of
integration of key Knowledge Streams to action oriented flow of knowledge
Disciplinary research integration to support
informed policy decision making
Diagnosis-to-treatment integration
Landscape scale integration
Climate change-dry land degradation integration
Local scientific knowledge integration
K-Stream 3 Research approach and methods
Development domains will build on typology factors comprising of productivity drivers, socio-economic factors, and policy and institutional factors.
Dry land economies will be classified based on their degree of isolation from outside economies and degree of inequality
The technological, market, policy or institutional failure contributing to land degradation and poverty, and the options for addressing them, will be assessed using a hierarchical diagnostic approach
OASIS Land health approach
Combating Dryland Degradation ProjectOne-year project funded by USAIDFocus on four countries:
Jordan Morocco Pakistan Yemen
Collaboratively between ICARDA and ICRISAT
Severity and scale of land degradation in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Yemen
Entrees are severity and scale of the problem. Severity of the problem: *** = severe, ** = moderate, and *=minimum.Scale of the problem: S= small, M=medium and L =large
The Approach for Diagnosis, Implementation and Evaluation
OASIS Hierarchical approach to diagnosis andsolutions for land degradation
The Participative Integrated Assessment Complex and dynamic bio-economic models will
be used for realistic assessment
Qualitative participative methods of data collection will be used for primary level data from stake holders
Network approaches to illumine research policy-linkages with an effective combination of semi-structured interviews and discussions will be used