Land degradation in the developing world : implications for food, agriculture, and the environment to 2020

As populations grow, farmers are forced to cultivate smaller and smaller plots, where the soil eventually becomes depleted, or they expand onto marginal lands -- fragile hillsides, semiarid areas, cleared forestland. Once these lands are damaged, can they be repaired? These questions were debated at an April, 1996, workshop hosted by the International Food Policy Research Institute and attended by 35 experts from 14 countries. Objectives of the workshop were to assess the long-term effect of agricultural land degradation on global food supplies, rural income, and environmental stability; identify the "hot spots" of land degradation deserving particular policy attention; examine the current land degradation patterns and future prospects for significant agricultural land improvement; and identify the most promising avenues for policy intervention to reduce degradation and promote land improvements. This paper synthesizes the discussions and recommendations of the workshop, which closed by urging policy makers to assess the types of degradation issues that will be most critical to their countries in 2020 and to begin to take action now. Includes references.