Sustainable poverty reduction in less-favoured areas: problems, options and strategies.

Abstract

This chapter discusses: (i) the strategic interactions between natural resource management options; (ii) farm-household livelihood strategies for welfare and risk; and (iii) the surrounding market and institutional conditions for simultaneously enabling poverty reduction and sustainable land use. The chapter starts with a definition of the main characteristics of less-favoured areas (LFAs), followed by an analysis of the interactions between poverty and resource degradation in LFAs. Hereafter, the biophysical, micro- and macroeconomic dimensions of LFA development are discussed in order to provide insight in the complex interfaces between agroecological options, household drivers for change and effective incentives for resource use adjustment. The chapter concludes with some major implications for policy and research concerning strategies for sustainable poverty reduction in less-favoured areas.

Poverty, Agriculture and the Environment: The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Appropriate production strategies in these areas include perennial and tree crops, rotating cultivation systems, and mixed cropping. The constraints of limited natural endowments are aggravated to begin with by increasing degradation trends, such as soil erosion and compaction, water stress, over-grazing, deforestation, and desertifi cation in the drylands (Ruben et al 2007 ). Quantifying the extent of land area and the size of populations found in marginal areas is challenging, as existing information on these subjects and on local limiting factors are not mutually exclusive.…”

“…The vast majority of drylands-about 72 %-are in developing countries, where they are home to 13 % of the developing world's population (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005 ). In SSA the predominant farming systems in the drylands include migratory livestock herding, agro-pastoral systems, and rainfed mixed cropping (Dixon et al 2001 ;Ruben et al 2007 ;UNDP 2009 ). Drought and water stress are the predominant environmental constraints, exacerbated in many areas by land degradation (Adhikari 2011 ).…”

Green Revolution: Impacts, limits, and the path ahead

“…There is also a growing body of evidence of spillovers from the productive regions that benefit the more marginal environments. These spillovers involve not only technology transfer and capital investments but also the software of development, such as local institutions, property rights, and social capital (67).…”

More Than Cereal-Based Cropping Innovations for Improving Food and Livelihood Security of Poor Smallholders in Marginal Areas of Bangladesh

“…16 (A) agricultural intensification through improving current farming system performance by means of innovations (yet to be identified), (B) agricultural diversification through changing current farming system and/or shifting to another, (C) income diversification through progressing along the value chain, for example, by shifting from being a farmer to working as an agro-dealer, or diversifying income from the non-agricultural sector (e.g., by non-farm wage employment or migrating to other areas/abroad) (D) leaving the agricultural sector completely This allocation of poor SHs from different strata is carried out parallel to the livelihood assets and need assessment. As it is widely recognized that development strategies for sustainable intensification in marginality hotspots with agricultural potential need a careful adjustment of resource use at the field farm, household and village levels, we need to look for a portfolio of activities and technologies that guarantee input efficiency and labor productivity (Ruben et al 2007). The sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) developed by DFID (2000) is used to improve our understanding of the livelihoods of the poor SHs.…”

“…Therefore, marginal (or less-favored or laggard) regions, especially in poor developing countries and emerging economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, have recently gained much attention in the development literature (Conway 1999;Fan and Hazell 2000;Pinstrup-Anderson and Pandya-Lorch 1994;Ruben et al 2007;Pender 2007;Reardon et al 2012). As mentioned earlier, the first step towards designing systematic interventions is to identify underperforming areas.…”