The challenge of HIV/AIDS: Where does agroforestry fit in? - World ...

Keywords:Policy, land management, agriculture,agroforestry, researchChapter 8Policies for improved land management in smallholderagriculture: The role for research in agroforestry andnatural resource managementFrank Place, World Agroforestry Centre and Yves-Coffi Prudencio, World Bank 1AbstractThis main purpose of this chapter is to identify significant research areas for the World AgroforestryCentre (and other natural resource management research centres) that will contribute to improvedpolicies for land management. To do this, the chapter first describes the nature and extent of land degradationand argues why this is a major policy issue. It then applies a conceptual framework to identifythe proximate and underlying causes of land degradation. Special attention is paid to the effect of policies,especially those related to land tenure, soil management, and research and extension. It concludesby reviewing the Centre’s experiences in policy research and advocacy and proposing three key areasfor intervention in the future: identification of land management problems and opportunities, design ofinvestment/response priorities, and monitoring the impact of policy reforms.IntroductionIt is well documented that smallholder farming areasthroughout the developing world are beset by highpoverty rates, suffer from low (and sometimes declining)productivity, and have increased occurrences ofland degradation. For example, about 50 percent of ruralhouseholds in India, and about 60 percent of thosein sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are living below the povertyline (World Bank 2000). In fact, in SSA, about 85percent of the all the poor reside in rural areas (Mwabuand Thorbecke 2001). Some South American and EastAsian countries have succeeded in significantly reducingpoverty through urban growth, but this is decadesaway from being feasible in many South Asian countriesand almost all African countries (United Nations2003). Thus, coinciding with the recent heightenedattention on poverty and the setting of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs) (United Nations 2000),there has been renewed debate on how policy reformscan spur investment in smallholder agriculture to increasefood security and income. These debates payparticular attention to the impact of such policies onsustainable land management, which is increasinglybeing recognized as a necessary step along the pathtowards meeting the MDGs in rural areas.The major aim of this chapter is to suggest a set ofpriorities for research into improved land managementin smallholder agricultural landscapes, which willpotentially inform policy decisions. The section thatfollows will show why smallholder land management isan issue meriting public policy attention: examining the1The opinions expressed in this chapter are those of the author and not of the World Bank.