Improving land and water management by farmers in arid regions

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends promoting a farming approach to land and water management that takes account of the level of education, the capacity to mobilize local communities and the ecosystem requirements of arid and semi-arid regions.

1. Few people perceive the use of their land-use strategies as a soil and water conservation benefit, yet in preserving their land and vegetation this is exactly what it is. Likewise planners in soil and water conservation, in many cases, do not see the value of such strategies, preferring the use of structures in curing the problem rather than preventing the disease.

1. Reducing vulnerability of arid developing countries
2. Managing water
3. Managing fragile ecosystems
4. Managing drylands
5. Improving planning and management systems
6. Improving land use practices to prevent land degradation and erosion
7. Addressing problems of cultivation of marginal agricultural land

1. Providing special extension services in areas prone to drought
2. Developing small scale irrigation to conserve water
3. Developing drainage for irrigated lands in arid and semi-arid regions
4. Creating arid gardens

1. Practising restorative farming
2. Managing water resources for sustainable rural development

1. Strengthening local organizations responsible for land management
2. Incorporating water resource development into land-use plans
3. Improving education on land management
4. Building capacity for land management

1. Integrating water resource management and biodiversity conservation

1. Mismanagement
2. Land
3. Arid