Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
2004) hypothesizes that environmental degradation first increases as the economy
grows but later reaches a plateau and then decreases. The EKC pattern is driven by
a number of factors including industrialization and consequent reduced dependence
on natural resources, improved agricultural technologies that reduced conversion of
forest land to agriculture, rural-urban migration, improved environmental percep-
tion, and stronger regulatory institutions (Kuznet 1955; Grossman and Krueger 1991;
Dinda 2004). The GDP also represents national level policies, which has an indirect
impact on land degradation or improvement. For example, Graham and Wada (2001)
show that China's policy—which allowed foreign direct investment—was one of the
major drivers of the country's rapid economic growth. This and other policy reforms
led to industrialization, which in turn contributed to rapid urbanization and reduced
dependence on the agricultural sector (Hazell and Wood 2008).*
To address outliers in the first difference model, we use an average of four con-
secutive years for the baseline and end line periods. However, not all data were avail-
able for the 4 years of the baseline and end line periods. In such cases, we used time
periods closest to the two NDVI time periods.
9.3
EXTENT OF LAND DEGRADATION AND
ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH POVERTY
9.3.1 e
xtent
of
L
and
d
egradatIon
In accordance with the focus of this paper, we first examine the extent and sever-
ity of land degradation or improvement. We then discuss the relationship between
poverty and the NDVI. A recent study that used change of the NDVI in 1981 to 2003
as an indicator of land degradation or improvement showed that the humid areas
accounted for 78% of the global degraded land area while arid and semiarid areas
accounted for only 13% (
Figure 9.1
). This pattern is contrary to the current global
focus on combating desertification—a form of land degradation in the arid and semi-
arid areas—upon which the United Nations to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
derives its name. Accordingly, a study by Bai (2008) found a negative correlation
between aridity and land degradation.
9.3.2 h
ow
I
S
L
and
d
egradatIon
/I
mprovement
r
eLated
to
p
overty
at
g
LobaL
L
eveL
?
Geographically, the regions that experienced the most severe land degradation are
Africa south of the equator, which accounted for 13% of the global degraded land
area, some parts of China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Australia, and South American
plains (the Pampas) (
Figure 9.2
). Excluding Australia, this pattern shows the strong
correlation between land degradation and poverty. Using infant mortality rate (IMR)
*
China's rural population as share of total population fell from 82% between 1961 and 1970 to 58%
between 2000 and 2009, but during the same period, agricultural area per capita of rural population
increased by 14% from about 0.6 to 0.7 ha per capita (FAOSTAT 2011).
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