Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
conservation approaches used the top-down approach to promoting the use of
conservation practices. The practices promoted mainly involved structural
methods used to prevent soil erosion. The approach earned its name from the
lack of farmer participation in technology design and the use of command-and-
control type policies used in implementation of the externally developed
structural measures. The policies pursued under this approach included forced
adoption of soil erosion control and planting of trees on hillsides, both of which
have the potential to improve soil biodiversity by either retaining or replenishing
the soil organic matter. However, the policies were largely driven by fear of
future consequences of inaction. Nonetheless, this approach to soil conservation
continued in several tropical areas (especially in Africa) until the mid
1980s.
144,145
The majority, however, failed to realise expected gains due to lack
of incentive and initiative by households, resulting in the abandonment of the
technologies as soon as the authorities were not involved.
The experiences gained from the failure of top-down policies were used to
formulate a new approach referred to as the ''populist'' approach. This
approach made the farmer central to program design and implementation of
soil conservation activities. It had its foundations in the topic Farmer First.
146
The approach stressed a small-scale and bottom-up participatory approach to
soil conservation using homegrown technologies
147
and rejected wholesale
technology transfer. However, it faced difficulties because of its failure to
address the economic, institutional and policy environments in which farmers
operate.
143,148
Consequently, development agencies developed the third
approach, namely the neo-liberal approach, which advocated the need to
understand the structure of incentives that impede the use of soil conservation
technologies. The neo-liberal approach recognised the essential role of farmer
innovation but emphasised the critical role of markets, policies and institutions
in stimulating and inducing farmer innovation, adoption and adaptation of
suitable soil conservation options.
139
It especially focused on making soil
conservation attractive and economically rewarding to farmers. The approach
spearheaded the adoption of productive technologies and improved access to
markets, which usually spur farmer investments in sustainable soil conserva-
tion options due to increased agricultural revenues.
The approach used in promoting soil conservation in agriculture has further
changed in the last few years, moving instead towards the concept of
sustainable land management (SLM) both at the farm and landscape level.
148
While there is no single all-encompassing definition of SLM, it has been
suggested
149
that SLM implies a system of technologies that aims to integrate
ecological, socio-economic and political principles in the management of land
for agricultural and other purposes to achieve intra- and inter-generational
equity. This broadening of the concept of soil conservation shows the
complexity of the challenges it entails. The following section examines these
challenges in the context of incentives and capacity variables, the institutional
and the information-related factors that condition adoption.
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