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The Potential Role of Organic Agriculture in the alleviation of Land Degradation

Land degradation is a serious threat to food production and rural livelihoods, particularly in semi-arid and arid areas and appropriate policies and strategies are required to encourage land-improving investments and better land management if countries in these areas are to sustainably meet the needs of their rural populations. Land degradation takes a number of forms, including depletion of soil nutrients, salinization, agrochemical pollution, soil erosion, vegetative cover degradation as a result of overgrazing, and the cutting of forests for farmland. All of these types of degradation lead to a decline in the productive capacity of the land, thus, reducing potential yields. Farmers may need to use more inputs such as fertilizer or manure in order to maintain yields or they may temporarily or permanently abandon affected land. Degradation may also induce farmers to convert land to lower-value uses. For example, farmers may convert cropland to grazing land, which demands fewer nutrients. Farmland degradation can also have important negative effects off the farm, including deposition of eroded soil in streams or behind dams, contamination of drinking water by agrochemicals and loss of habitat .
Although some types of degradation are irreversible, most can be prevented or reversed by, for example, adding nutrients to nutrient-depleted soils, rebuilding topsoil using soil amendments, re-establishing vegetation or buffering soil acidity. The practicality of rehabilitating degraded land depends on the costs relative to the value of the output or environmental benefits expected. Although no formal evidence is available, land-improving investments are substantially alleviating land degradation in many parts of the world. Agroforestry is being used in many places and is beginning to show positive impacts where it has been used; conservation farming is spreading widely in many countries; water management is improving through water-saving irrigation, water harvesting, small-scale irrigation and salinization control; diversification into higher-value perennial crops is protecting soils in many parts of world; dryland range rehabilitation schemes are showing positive results in arid areas including Syria and Jordan; and farmer incentives for land investment are improving through range cooperatives such as in Jordan.
Organic agriculture can help in the alleviation of land degradation as it encourages the minimal use of external inputs, and attempts to make the best use of local natural resources. Soil management using organic farming methods provides a model to responding to agricultural development needs in a sustainable manner. Organic agriculture represents an ideal condition to overcome natural resources conservation without hampering the productive capacity of the land so as to meet the short to medium term economic needs of farmers and the medium to long term needs of ecosystem sustainability. Sustainable development, especially in rural areas, requires the joint implementation of the application of low-impact production methods and the maintenance and functional rehabilitation of natural resources.

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