DESERT MARGINS PROGRAM GEF CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

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DESERT MARGINS PROGRAMGEF CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES
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Land degradation severity in desert margins of SSA
High Low Non-degraded DMP member countries DMP
potential countries
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Agro-ecological zones of the desert margins of WA
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(No Transcript)
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An unbalanced system, a downward spiral
Demographic control
Population increase
Climate change and climate fluctuation
Intensification of Agriculture
Need for increasing the production
Increase in cropped area
Decrease or suppression of the fallow
cycle (traditional way of restoring soil
fertility) Cropping of marginal land

• Decreasing yields
• Land degradation
• Increasing competition between crop and
  livestock for common natural resource base

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The yield gap and the limitations that cause it
Potential yield (Experimentation)

• Biophysical limitations
• Soil fertility
• Water
• Variety, etc
• Which inputs are lacking?

Yield gap

• Socio economic and policy limitations
• Knowledge
• Credit
• Availability
• Why inputs are not used?

Actual yield
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Major constraints to sustainable agricultural
production and biodiversity conservation
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• Environmental constraints
• Infertile erosion prone soils
• Limited and unpredictable rainfall
• Inadequate irrigation
• Reduction of suitable land for agricultural
  purposes
• Pests and diseases

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• Technological constraints
• Inappropriate technology transfer
• Weak research-extension-farmer linkages
• Inappropriate and inadequate technological
  packaging, as well as limited technological
  awareness
• Limited involvement of universities in research
  and extension education and lack of adequate
  trained personnel

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• Policy constraints
• Incentives to increase agricultural production
  are not harmonized and sustained
• Inappropriate land tenure systems that limit
  access to land and security of tenure
• Inadequate policy to support sustainable
  agricultural farming systems

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• Policy constraints ( Contd)
• Exclusion of the corporate sector from
  agricultural farming systems
• Inefficient financial support to implement
  technology
• Weak logistics to extend technologies e.g. roads,
  telephones and tools

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• Socio-cultural constraints
• Indigenous technical knowledge is not taken into
  account
• Some farmers are not convinced of the added
  value of technology
• Technology conflicts with local knowledge and
  time-tested traditional practices
• Gender barriers to technology adoption

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• Economic constraints
• Inadequate access to markets for agricultural
  produce
• Low market competitiveness for agricultural
  produce
• Insufficient funding for agricultural research

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• Economic constraints (CONTd)
• Limited access to farm inputs and credit
• High cost of fertilizers inputs and other
  soil-condition ameliorating methods
• Competition/conflicts between agriculture and
  livestock enterprise on limited land resources

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• Institutional constraints
• Inadequate integration of research and
  development activities
• Lack of coordination among and between
  agricultural research institutions (IARCs and
  NARS)
• Inadequate promotion of sustainable agricultural
  farming systems

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Nutrient mining

• Burkina Faso
• 95 000 T of N
• 28 000 T of P2O5
• 79 000 T of K2O
• (equivalent to US 160 million)
• Mali 40 of farmers agricultural revenue comes
  from nutrient mining

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Desert Margins Program

• Wider Objectives (Goal)
• To arrest land degradation and conserve and
  restore biodiversity in the Desert Margins
  through sustainable utilization of biodiversity
• Specific Objectives (Purpose)
• To develop and implement strategies for
  conservation, restoration and sustainable use of
  dry land biodiversity (to enhance ecosystem
  function and resilience)

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Expected Outputs

• Improved understanding of ecosystem status and
  dynamics with regard to loss of biodiversity
• Strategies for conservation, restoration and
  sustainable use of degraded agro ecosystems
  developed and implemented
• NRM Capacity of stakeholders and target
  populations enhanced

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Expected Outputs (contd.)

• Sound policy intervention/guidelines for
  sustainable resource use formulated, adopted and
  implemented
• Participatory natural resources management
  methods are implemented
• The target populations are involved at each stage
  of the projects cycle

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Project Activities by year

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Costs and Financing (Million US )

• GEF Project Phase 1 (2 years) 4,987,134
• Phase 2 (2 years) 5,617,044
• Phase 3 (2 years) 5,365,822
• PDF A 25,000
  PDF B 340,000
• Subtotal GEF
  16,335,000
• Total project cost
  49,507,307 (GEF Co-Fi Govt in Kind)
  

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ICRISAT Board
Third Level
Second Level
Steering Committee
DMP C.U.
First Level
Governance Structure of DMP
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Conclusions

• Biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in
  the Desert Margins will require

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• 1. Promotion of sustainable livelihoods
• Diversification of sources of income
• Promoting sustainable harvesting
• Exploring innovative sustainable uses of
  biodiversity for generating income
• Developing markets for products with added values
• Benefit-sharing including bioprospecting

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2. Availability of sound management practices

• Lessons learned from traditional sustainable
  management
• Integrated management approaches
• Watershed management
• Trans-boundary considerations
• Sustainable natural resource management
• Water harvesting
• Soil conservation

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Management practices (contd)

• Land tenure/property rights issues
• Community based activities
• Empowerment
• Public awareness, education/training,
  international experience
• Participatory adaptive management
• Participatory crop/tree improvement

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Management practices (contd)

• Law enforcement and policy implementation
• Decentralization
• Community participation
• Negotiating skills/conflict resolution
• International regional networking

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Thank You