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