Monitoring Agricultural Drought in the Near East - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 222

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in precipitation. Crop and livestock losses attributed to drought can have
severe repercussions on both the countries' balance of payments and on the
livelihoods of individual producers. The response of the region's govern-
ments to drought has so far aimed at mitigating the worst effects of drought
rather than treating it as a structural problem that can be incorporated into
government policies and long-term management plans. While the required
institutional changes are slowly taking place, the governments of the re-
gion are fully aware that drought has to be tackled within the context of
a comprehensive dryland management strategy. The latter, in addition to
its traditional drought mitigation aspects, has dimensions of agricultural
stability and productivity and environmental sustainability.
Drought monitoring systems are important tools to implement such
strategy. Strategic issues to be addressed are the institutional arrangements
to ensure free information flow between monitoring and rapid response ac-
tion teams at different decision-making levels. Particular drought research
needs include the feasibility of drought prediction, the spatialization of
drought, and the assessment of drought vulnerability from agroecological
and livelihood perspectives.

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