Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
a higher NDVI since agriculture remains the primary driver of deforestation in the
SSA region. In Congo and Liberia, government effectiveness fell, but the agricultural
area remained unchanged. Additionally, agricultural contribution to GDP in Congo
decreased suggesting diversification to nonagricultural sectors.
Changes in Sierra Leone are puzzling and require additional information for
them to be understood. While government effectiveness fell—largely as a result of
the civil war in the early 2000s—both the area and contribution of agriculture to
GDP increased by almost one-third. Additional data are required to fully understand
this puzzling pattern. Of interest also are, the trends and patterns in Burkina Faso.
Government effectiveness, agricultural area, and its contribution to GDP increased.
Burkina Faso's agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) index (1961 = 100) was
125 in 2001 and 109 in 2008 suggesting increased productivity (Fuglie and Rada
2011). The increased TFP could have been due to the higher budgetary allocation to
agriculture, which was the highest in the countries considered and almost twice the
Maputo declaration target of allocating 10% of government budget to agriculture.
This suggests that agricultural investment and higher TFP could have contributed to
a higher NDVI—in addition to the role played by improved government effective-
ness and other factors.
Land improvement in Southern Niger ( Figure 9.3 ) illustrates the potential role
played by institutions in land improvement. Government effectiveness increased and
one of the factors that could have directly contributed to land improvement is the
statue ( rural code ) that gave landowners tenure security of any tree that they plant or
protect (Larwanou et al. 2006). It is estimated that at least 3 million ha of land has
been rehabilitated through tree protection, which allowed for natural regeneration
(Adam et al. 2006). However, the rural code was not the only deciding factor that led
to this remarkable success. The prolonged drought that spanned the 1970s and 1980s
led to loss of trees, hiking the price of tree products. This provided strong incentive
to farmers to plant and protect trees. Planted forest area as a share of total forest
area in Niger was 12% in 2010 and was among the highest in SSA (FAO 2010). This
achievement was a result of a combination of efforts by local communities, change
in government policies and statutes, support from NGOs and religious organizations,
and environmental stress, which prompted communities for a solution.
Overall, the results show the potential contribution of government effectiveness,
agricultural intensification, and diversification to other sectors to land improvement.
9.3.3 r eLatIonShIp of p overty and L and d egradatIon
at h ouSehoLd L eveL —c aSe S tudIeS
Some studies have been done at the household level to determine the relationship
between poverty and land degradation. A study in Malawi showed that 10% defor-
estation reduced rural household consumption by 0.1% (Bandyopadhyay 2006), and
a similar study in India found comparable results (Baland et al. 2006). The impact
of deforestation on consumption appears small, but the overall impact is greater
since the studies only considered consumption and ignored other forest ecological
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