Focus AreasTrust Funds and CentresCross-Cutting Areas and InitiativesSearch |
Drylands AgricultureOver 40% of the earth is drylands. About 1 billion people depend directly upon the natural  resource of the drylands for their livelihood. These include the world's poorest and disenfranchised.People who live in the drylands are often geographically and politically isolated. While investment flows to higher potential areas drylands are ignored until the next famine. Then famine relief and short-term assistance are needed. But with investment and good management drylands can be productive and sustain excellent livelihoods. Some of the world's richest areas lie in the drylands of North America and Australia. The Centre provides advice and support in three vitally important areas: |
| The Challenge |
The Solution |
| - Degraded Land - Infertile Soils - Lack of Water - Lack of Credit - Lack of Investments - No Markets - Low Prices - Lack of Imports - Poorly Defined Land Rights - Perverse Policies - Weak Institutions |
- Farmer Participation - Participatory Planning - Soil Fertility Improvement - Water harvesting - Soil and Water Management - Drought resistant varities - Crop diversification - Land Tenure Reform - Legislative Support - Public Private Marketing Institutions - High Value Livestock and Produce - Local Agro-Industry - Supportive Polices - Fair Pricing - Access to Global Markets |
There are 800 million people in the world who do not know where their next meal is coming from. About 180 million of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa, 204 million in India, 164 million in China, 157 million elsewhere in Asia, 53 million in Latin America, and 33 million in the Middle East. Most of the hungry are concentrated in two contrasting areas---India and China, net food exporters, and Sub-Saharan Africa, the only region of the world that produces insufficient total quantities of food. 66% of Africa is desert or drylands; increasing food production will depend upon improved drylands agriculture. Malnutrition exacerbates the effects of pandemic diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The UN target of cutting hunger in half by 2015 is nowhere in sight.
The objectives of UNDP's Type II Drylands Agriculture Proposal are to:
- Reduce poverty in the drylands areas by 50% by 2015
- Strengthen the capacities of drylands communities to manage their natural resources
- Improve livelihoods and food security of drylands communities
- Support land reform processes through legislative reform and support to land
adjudication processes
- Encourage the establishment of public private partnerships to improve access to markets especially by increasing the private sector's involvement in purchasing and processing high-value commodities from the drylands
- Diversify to high value markets for agricultural products
- Strengthen the use of media (print, radio and television) to bring vital information to drylands communities and to use those media to disseminate and replicate the successes of the programme
- To bring about legal and institutional reform to support the socio-economic development of rural communities
