drought desertification - United Nations Economic Commission for ...

Rural Development Strategies
73. Rural development strategies that span a wide range of sectors have been initiated to address
drought and desertification through rational exploitation and management of natural resources, sustainable
agricultural production and diversification of activities and rural incomes, among others. For example,
Algeria’s Sustainable Rural Development Strategy of 2004 accords priority to rural communities living in
dispersed or isolated areas and it implementation aims among other things to ensure rational exploitation
and development of natural resources.
74. Ethiopia’s Agricultural and Rural Development Policy embodies principles that are relevant to
combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought. These include improving farming skills;
improving the supply, replication and dissemination of technologies; ensuring access to land and tenure
security; resolving problems of drought prone regions; and improving agricultural marketing systems,
promoting rural finance, developing the rural energy sector and rural telecommunications. 83
75. In the case of Madagascar, the country’s National Rural Development Policy has a main objective
of ensuring food security and promoting sustainable development of natural resources. The strategic
orientation is towards increasing agricultural productivity with optimal utilization and sustainable
management of natural resources and supporting infrastructure.
Programs and Projects
76. Countries have also formulated some programmes, projects and action plans to support the
implementation of policies and strategies. These projects are shown in Annex 2 contribute to controlling
desertification and mitigating drought impacts. Successes have been registered in many cases. An example
from Algeria is the implementation of activities earmarked by the National Fund for the Regulation of
Agricultural Development. One such activity is the afforestation plan, which has registered the following
results: the establishment of fruit trees plantations, which cover more than 1.2 million hectares of land
and the conservation and improvement of soils covering an area of more than 2.8 million hectares. 84 The
County’s National Programme for Agricultural and Rural Development launched in Algeria in 2002,
which particularly targeted arid and semi arid zones, facilitated the introduction of appropriate irrigation
technologies in these regions.
77. The six countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, Niger, Senegal and Sudan have benefited from the
pilot project: Operation Acacia, which is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
with financial support from the Italian government. Launched 2003, the project has helped local farmers
to restore degraded land by planting native Acacias that produce gums and resins - important products
for Sahelian people’s livelihoods. The project has among others trained about 56 000 producers of gum
Arabic and resin on ways to improve their production to meet international market standards. As a result,
more than 13 000 ha of degraded land have been restored. This has improved animal feeding and reduced
conflicts between farmers and shepherds. The mixed cropping of Acacia trees with tomatoes, sesame and
beans has boosted the growth of both. The sale of gum and resin overseas has brought in much-needed
cash to the region and helped the farmers diversify and increase their sources of income. 85
83 Ibid
84 Algeria’s country report, 2006
85 FAO. Killing two birds with one stone: Transferring knowledge to fight poverty and land degradation http://www.fao.org/forestry/
newsroom/en/news/110909/highlight_110989en.html; and Operation Acacia: boosting production of gums and natural resins. http://
www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/24339-en.html
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