The CAADP Pillar I Framework

This Malawian farmer‘s experience reflects the reality faced by a growing number of rural poor inAfrica. Some 59 percent of Africa‘s population live in rural areas and depend primarily on local landresources to meet their basic needs for food, fuel, water, shelter and cash. Increasingly, suchhouseholds are finding their livelihoods adversely affected by land degradation and climate change.A variety of scientific studies back up farmers‘ anecdotal reports, confirming that the quality – andhence productivity – of Africa‘s land resources is declining, while the number of poor people andland-derived goods and services are increasing dramatically.About 874 million hectares of Africa's land is considered suitable for agricultural production. Of this,about 83 percent have serious soil fertility or other limitations and will need costly improvements andamendments to achieve high and sustained productivity.Land degradation is continuing and increasing in severity and impact. If present trends continue, twothirdsof Africa's croplands could effectively be non-productive by 2025 (UN, 2004). At the same timethe total area and productivity of Africa‘s traditional rangelands is decreasing. The ecological,economic and social consequences of this will be severe for not only the welfare of individual ruralhouseholds, but also for future development and social stability, both urban and rural, at the countryand regional levels. If nothing is done to address the problem, the future for Africa will surely bebleak.Economic consequences Globally, an average of only 4.4 percent of GDP comes from agriculture.However in Africa that percentage is nearly 30. This means that continued land degradation is amajor factor to Africa‘s under-development. As land productivity has declined, the useful, oreconomic, yield from individual croplands, rangelands and forests/woodlands has also declined. Soilnutrient depletion in the fields of Africa‘s small-scale farmers is severe with inadequate replenishmentof the nutrients lost due to soil erosion, leaching and removal in harvested products. Given the higherpotential of irrigated areas, the economic losses due to land degradation per unit area will besignificantly higher than in the continent‘s rain-fed farming areas. Rangeland degradation involvesboth reduced forage productivity and quality, water cycling effectiveness and resilience for drought. Inyears with unfavourable rainfall, this has often led to major livestock losses.Table 3: Some Economic Consequences of Land Degradation in Sub-Saharan AfricaConsequenceLoss of GDPCrop Yield LossesLoss of LandProductivityEconomic ConsequencesNature and Severity of the Economic Losses Over 3 percent of Africa‘s agricultural GDP lost annually as a direct result ofsoil and nutrient loss – equivalent in cash terms to US$ 9 billion per year(Dregne, 1991, Dreschel et al., 2001). In originally fertile lands, under continuous cropping without nutrient inputs,cereal grain yields declined from 2-4 tonnes per hectare to under 1 tonne perhectare (Sanchez et. al., 1997). In 1989, it was estimated that crop yield losses due to past erosion rangedfrom 2 to 40 percent, with a mean of 6.2 percent for Africa. In the absence oferosion, 3.6 million tonnes more of cereals, 6.5 million tonnes more of rootsand tubers and 0.4 million tonnes more of pulses could have been produced(Lal, 1995). A study of the effects of soil erosion in Malawi (World Bank, 1992) foundannual yield losses for specific crops varied from 4 to 11 percent, while a largefield survey in Tanzania found yields were 30 percent higher in the areas withleast erosion compared to those with the most (Kilasara et al., 1995). The productivity loss in Africa from soil degradation since World War II hasbeen estimated at 25 percent for cropland and 8-14 percent for cropland andpasture together (Odelmann, 1998). Irreversible soil productivity losses of at least 20 percent due to erosion arereported to have occurred over the last century in large parts of Ethiopia,Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Southern Africa, Swaziland and Uganda(Dregne, 1990).57