Desire for Greener Land

Origin of technology
SLM technologies can be of local or external origin. They
can also be recently introduced or originate from a long
time ago. These combinations of origin and age for the
DESIRE technologies are presented in Figure 7. In total, eight
technologies are older than 50 years, nine are between 10
and 50 years old and thirteen are younger than 10 years.
Ten technologies are from land users’ initiatives, either traditional
or innovative, six are from experiments / research
and fourteen are from projects. Almost all combinations are
represented in each technology group, except the two grazing
management technologies, which are both from land
user’s initiative. It is remarkable that three quarters of the
technologies documented were implemented within the last
50 years. This coincides with the boost of investments in agricultural
research and extension by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and governments
since the 1960s, which is especially known in Asia as having
led to the Green Revolution. This fact is also reflected by the
high percentage of externally introduced technologies (e.g.
through projects, but not necessarily from another country),
under which two thirds of all technologies fall.
No. of case studies
Origin of SLM technology
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Cropping
management
Water
management
Cross-slope
barriers
Grazing land
management
SLM technology groups
Forest
management
through experiments / research;
50 years ago
externally / introduction through
project; 50 years ago
through land user's initiative;
recent (mostly 10 – 50 years ago)
through land user's initiative;
traditional (>50 years ago)
DESIRE - WOCAT 2012
Figure 7: Origin and age of SLM technologies in relation to
the SLM technologies group.
Natural environment
Due to the focus of the DESIRE project on drylands and
desertification, most of the technologies are applied in
semi-arid agro-climatic zones. Some are even applied in arid
zones, and a few in sub-humid zones. Rainfall is below 750
mm / year in almost all sites, mostly falling between 250-500
mm annually. Most of the technologies are applied at altitudes
between 100 and 500 m a.s.l.
In order to accurately understand the conditions under
which each technology is applied, many parameters of the
natural environment are documented within the WOCAT
questionnaire. In this analysis, we only focus on a few issues
that are most relevant to the dryland and desertification
context found in the DESIRE sites.
Figure 8 presents the slope categories where the technologies
are applied. As expected, cross-slope barriers and forest management
technologies are mostly found on sloping land. In
total, half of all technologies are applied on slopes above 8%,
which demonstrates the focus of and need for SLM on sloping
(marginal) land. It is erosion and water loss that are the main
very steep (>60%)
steep (30–60%)
hilly (16–30%)
rolling (8–16%)
moderate (5–8%)
gentle (2–5%)
flat (0–2%)
44 DESIRE – WOCAT Desire for Greener Land
No. of case studies
Slope
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Cropping
management
Water
management
Cross-slope
barriers
Grazing land
management
SLM technology groups
Forest
management
DESIRE - WOCAT 2012
Figure 8: Slope categories in relation to the SLM technology
groups. (Note that for each technology only the major category
was selected).
Mexico, Christian Prat Morocco, Gudrun Schwilch