Despite the substantial improvements in agricultural productivity owing to technological progress, the poor in agriculturally marginal areas are overlooked and left behind. Nearly a billion people still live in poverty, the majority of whom happen to be in developing countries, with a larger share of those who are poor living on marginal lands. Food insecurity is a vicious reality in the everyday lives of these marginalized poor, and the threat of food insecurity and hunger is becoming even more serious and imminent, with increasing trends in population growth. Climate change is expected to add yet more weight to this equation and to pose greater risks for the livelihoods of these communities. In spite of the challenges faced, addressing marginal agriculture systems and poverty is vital to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this paper, we investigate the historical policy perspective towards marginal areas to pinpoint potential shortcomings in the policy environment. Subsequently, we present a roadmap to future research engagement and develop a policy framework, with instruments and strategies focusing on the food–poverty–environment nexus, to target poverty reduction, preserve biodiversity, and restore marginal lands. Our analysis of historical policies reveals that conventional policy approaches towards marginal agriculture have been conducive to favorable areas (specific to input-responsive crops only), neglecting marginal areas. Future policies to address the food–poverty–environment nexus within marginal environments must evolve around a framework that is all-inclusive but context-specific. Agricultural and other public investments should be prioritized geographically in accordance with the characteristics of marginality hotspots. Policy instruments should encourage long-term solutions to enhance productivity through regenerative production systems and preserve the environmental resource base.

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Assessing the economic impact of sand and dust storms provides critical insights to policy development and reforms; a subject that is gaining more attention as risk management becomes the dominant approach for hazard mitigation policies. To assess the causal impact of sand and dust storms on agriculture, specifically on crop and livestock revenue and physical production, random year-to-year variations in dust exposure were analyzed using a fixed effect regression. To complete this analysis, weather and climate data from the on-ground meteorological stations was combined with the household level socioeconomic surveys conducted by Mongolia’s National Statistics Office (NSO) over a decade. The descriptive statistics of the meteorological data collected over the eight years period show that, on average, 29 dust events have occurred every year across the country, with greater variation among provinces (Aimags) and regions, reaching up to 108 events in a year in some provinces. The overall trend reveals a slight decrease in the dust events from 2009 to 2019. The econometric results show that value of crop and livestock production (gross income) and physical yields significantly decline in response to higher frequencies of sand and dust storms events. During this period, Mongolia experienced a 2.7% decline in crop revenue as a result of additional sand and dust storms. Assuming 2.7% constant decline in revenues across all agricultural sub-sectors and regions or Aimags, this could lead to about $37.8 million in losses to the economy, which is equivalent to about 0.27% of the national GDP of Mongolia. Increases in the frequency of sand and dust storms could reduce agricultural productivity by between 1.5% to 24%, depending on the crop. Estimates from the modelling exercise are robust to potential endogeneity bias in the measure of sand and dust storms; different specification and identification approaches accounting for the endogeneity bias consistently reveal negative and qualitatively similar impacts of sand and dust storms on crop and livestock productivity.

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