Soil Degradation: A Threat to Developing-Country Food Security by 2020?

Global population in the year 2020 will be a third higher than in 1995, but demand for food and fiber will rise by an even higher proportion, as incomes grow, diets diversify, and urbanization accelerates. However this demand is met, population and farming pressure on land resources will intensify greatly. There is growing concern in some quarters that a decline in long-term soil productivity is already seriously iimiting food production in the developing world, and that the problem is getting worse. Despite this increased public attention and the commitment of land management specialists, many policymakers remain unconvinced that agricultural soil degradation warrants priority attention. Policymakers typically consider soil quality not as a policy objective in itself, but as an input into achieving other objectives. Before taking concrete action, policymakers need a clear understanding of policy and research priorities, that is, which geographical regions and which farming systems are experiencing what types of degradation problems, and how Important these problems are in relation to other challenges facing the farm sector.