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The incidence and severity of deprivation is highest in the less-favored semi-arid and marginal areas that
suffer from poor infrastructure, geographical isolation, poor market access, and vulnerability to climatic variability
and drought.
Translating: You can find the most number of poor people in the drylands and wastelands of ESA, with all those bad
roads, bad markets, bad weather, dry soils in the long dry months.
High levels of soil erosion, nutrient depletion and degradation of agro-ecosystems contribute to low productivity
and declining ecosystem resilience in many areas.
Translating: The soils are wasting away, their
nutrients are exhausted. The villagers’ produce
have been declining; the carrying capacities of
their farms and gardens have long been
reached.
The magnitude of soil fertility depletion on
arable lands is one of the highest in the
world and by far exceeds the rates of
nutrient replenishment through application
of organic and commercial fertilizers.
Translating: You can find here some of the
poorest lands on earth, so infertile that the
organic and inorganic fertilizers applied so far
have not solved the problem of soil poverty.
Low productivity is due to degraded soils,
lack of inputs and unfavorable weather
conditions.
Translating: The farmer is poor, the soil is poor,
the weather is bad, the harvest is few.
Most of the resource-poor farmers grow
their crops in degraded soils without inputs
such as chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Translating: Most of the poor farmers plant their poor soils expecting much, even as they invest little in them.
Today, farmers cannot afford the new ways of farming, and may have forgotten yesterday’s.
Rainfall is extremely variable in amount and distribution, making rainfed agriculture risky and thus preventing
farmers from investing in inputs that enhance productivity.
Translating: The rains come, the rains go at their own pleasure, the farmers at their mercy. Insight: How do you
catch a rain?
To Catch An Insight